Si vis pacem para bellum
by Assurbanipal II
Summary: Fate and destiny are rightfully considered forces beyond human control, and they sometimes work in strange ways. In this case, they both cause a slight disruption of canon and a few unintended consequences for her victims by planting a little innocent girl into the world of Naruto. [Female OC]
1. Arc I Prologue

**I**

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 **Disclaimer:**

The Naruto franchise doesn't belong to me and I do not claim any rights to it, except for my own original characters and the overall plot of the story.

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 **Author's note:**

Here is some initial information intended for anyone who didn't directly dive into the story and didn't skip the author's notes. What you need to know is that this chapter constitutes the prologue of the story and it's supposed to give you a rough background regarding the protagonist.

In general, I have added a few AU (Alternative Universe) elements to this world which is where my original character stems from.

For example, magic exists, in a certain sense. To help you to picture it, imagine something along the lines of the Fate series with less op servants, or if you would prefer, think of Harry Potter with less foolish wand-waving or silly incantations which typically consist of butchered Latin.

You may ask why I have I done it in this way. Well, I'll tell you this much, I had to provide my character with a slight advantage to compensate for a fatal disadvantage the protagonist has compared against the classical omniscient original characters who normally, but not always possess an astoundingly detailed knowledge of the future as well as a remarkably good memory.

And last but certainly not least, I had to plan ahead for the insane power creep which occurs at the end of Naruto Shipudden.

*cough* damn Madara and co. *cough*.

As a consequence, any character in all of Naruto has to be, unfortunately for me as an author, strong. Extremely strong in so as to have any significant impact on canon. Therefore, expect a character which can be considered 'slightly' overpowered, or not. Whatever you do, you should judge it for yourself.

As a general rule of thumb, any form of constructive criticism and reviews are always appreciated.

Now with this relatively short interruption gotten out of the way and after I have successfully stolen from you a tiny sliver of your precious lifetime with my verbosity, I hope you enjoy this story!

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 **Arc I Prologue**

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One day, I woke up from my unsettling dreams and I found myself ...

No, no, no, not original enough, not creative enough. I didn't wake up, and I didn't have unsettling dreams. On the contrary, my dreams were actually quite pleasant and I couldn't really complain about them. I need something else as my opening line, something with, with … with … with more esprit. Right, esprit, esprit, esprit.

Whatever, let's try again. Ahem. Drum roll please.

...

...

...

Ehm … Well, how shall I put it, I still have no idea. No, wait a moment ... Wait just a moment … Wait for a moment … No, sorry, I still got nothing.

Aargh, to hell with introductions. After all, who cares about first impressions anyway, right?

Long story even longer, I didn't anticipate that I would end up in a situation like this. Considering my incredibly bad luck in the past, however, I probably should have.

I expected some sort of heavy ordnance detonating straight into my face. Sadly, that didn't happen.

No, no, no, instead, there was a lot of vicious close combat with a horde of really pissed off mages trying to bisect me, and that wasn't funny. No, not funny at all.

They tried to pin me down by throwing enough bodies at me until they could practically bury me under their corpses alone. In my opinion, it was a stupid strategy, an incredibly stupid strategy. Unfortunately, it was indubitably effective and quantity proved to have a quality all of its own. In the end, their approach worked. Not that they could ever realistically defeat me or even kill me. No, no, no, that wasn't possible for mere mortals like them. They just came close a few times.

So, who I am to criticize their methods? Well, as long as it worked, it wasn't stupid, even when it was evidently stupid by every standard imaginable.

Unfortunately, my subsequent counterattack didn't go precisely as planned, not to say everything went totally wrong.

So, what happened after that you might wonder? Well, I was surrounded by a lot of cannon fodder and the overall tactical situation was precarious to say the least. Nevertheless, I wasn't some kind of toothless paper tiger and I certainly didn't make it easy for them. Instead, I refused to die without a fight. Ultimately, they were unable to kill me and I was unable to defeat them. It was essentially a draw. Yes, a draw, and I certainly wasn't running out of stamina and definitely wasn't about to lose. No, no, no, that didn't happen, it was definitely a draw and I am certainly not a bad loser.

Therefore, the tricky question was whether it was even possible to defeat someone like me who could be considered as invincible? And if yes, then how?

The first answer was a definite yes. Yes, it was possible to achieve. Everything that bleeds can be killed and I was sadly no exception to that mortal rule. The how was a bit more complicated, however.

So, if you can't beat someone in a fair fight, then what should you do? Exactly, you cheat.

Therefore, someone came up with the elegant idea to simply displace me instead of killing me. A lot of complicated space-time magic was employed and now I had absolutely no idea where the hell I ended up, which was highly annoying.

Nevertheless, I would say that it's important to remain optimistic and I had collected a few clues to my current location.

Since the first day that I was trapped in this never-ending limbo of consciousness and unconsciousness, I registered unidentifiable sounds which could be described as language.

Moreover, I noticed that all mental tasks require an almost inhuman amount of effort, which made gathering information annoying as hell.

Not to mention, that any attempt to move put an even bigger strain on my weak body, or rather what could be classified as moving these days. Nevertheless, I should consider myself lucky that I still possessed a body after this whole catastrophe. Because the mere fact that I could still move is a relatively reliable indicator that I was not some sort of nebulous ghost or wraith floating around in the immaterial world.

Furthermore, I was able to experience a few short glimpses of the world around me. And what I saw could be described as an unidentifiable, bright, warm, and watery nothingness. In conclusion, I had no meaningful successes in that regard.

The most infuriating thing was that I had no control over my own fate. I was trapped here without having any free choice. I felt weak, vulnerable, and powerless. And I despised it, I hated it.

Anyway, let's talk about something more cheerful. Interestingly, I noticed a serious lack of a certain energy which I was quite fond of, an energy that I missed dearly. Where had all my beloved mana gone to? Instead of the typical warming and calming touch of mana, I was surrounded by a cold nothingness. I didn't feel anything about the air, aether or whatever kind of a plain of existence in which I was currently residing.

Everything was just a vast emptiness and I couldn't sense a single strong magical signature in my vicinity. Sure, there were some signatures here and there. Nevertheless, they were are all so incomprehensibly weak and couldn't be actually considered strong.

But to be fair, my own magical signature wasn't particularly spectacular either. After all, my entire mana reserves had simply evaporated into nowhere. All my mana was gone, completely gone, zero, nada, nothing. And currently, I was reduced to just a few tiny little grains of precious mana, how cruel.

Fortunately, my empty reserves were finally replenishing themselves and my beloved mana slowly returned to me. And who knows, some day far day in the future I might …

...

...

...

What was that? It felt like I was being … pushed by some mysterious external force?. Strange. And apparently, I was approaching something bright. Its brightness blinded me.

Seriously, was this the famous light at the end of the tunnel? Come on, these were the final moments of my life before I would dissolve into metaphysical dust and what did I get? A stupid lightshow, or what? Well, I have to admit I am just … disappointed, severely disappointed.

To be honest, I did expect more. Because this was lacking. Even death was a surprisingly cheap affair. And evidently, Death wasn't particularly creative when it came to the scenery.

Do you hear that, Death, you bastard? Because I hope so, you asshole!

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A new sensation crawled over my unprotected skin. It was a cold, uncaring and merciless coldness which invaded my weak body. My body shivered and I suddenly missed the ever-present warmth from before, a comforting warmth that I was brutally ripped apart from. I wanted it back, but that wasn't possible. Instead, I felt alone. I was alone now, completely alone and once again thrown into a hostile, unforgiving and frozen world. Contrary to my expectations, it was clear by now that I was somehow still alive. I never thought that dying was such an overly complicated, surprisingly time-consuming, and primarily such an unreliable affair. I should have died, but I didn't. Instead, I survived. Perhaps I was indeed born under a lucky star.

Fresh air entered my weakened lungs and I felt a sudden urge … to cry. But I didn't understand why? For some strange reason, my body told me to cry and I only managed to suppress this instinct with my sheer force of will and mental discipline.

I was swaddled in a soft fabric and a pair of caring hands. It took a small eternity, but eventually my eyes adjusted and I got my first blurry, view of the world around me. That was an admittedly small victory, yet it was a victory nonetheless.

I opened my eyes and was greeted by a pair of affectionate eyes filled with pure motherly love. A woman was holding me in her arms and caressed my face gently. The woman smiled and you could see profound happiness glowing within her eyes.

I examined the Asian-looking woman and noticed immediately her unnaturally pale skin. It was either an indicator of a rich household or was simply caused by being barely exposed to the sunlight, both was possible.

Her long black silken hair. I furrowed a sceptical eyebrow. Yes, she was evidently Asian and her impeccable appearance suggested an extensive use of beauty products.

A petite and oval-shaped face without any sign of manual labour. She had no scars, no wrinkles, no pores, no imperfections. It was almost scary. But she was definitely rich, or wealthy at least.

And her stunning lapis lazuli blue eyes, eyes that were, however, expressing some inexplicable sorrow. Well, her eye colour was simply… strange, not so say highly suspicious and unnatural. They even seemed to slightly glimmer in the dark ... Wait a moment, I might be wrong, but wasn't she looking right at me …

Her was voice tired, yet overflowing with infinite happiness. "You have the eyes of your father."

The eyes of my father? I was understandably confused and I furrowed a , to my dismay, non-existent eyebrow.

Her next sentence didn't help either and only confused me further. "Even when he certainly won't acknowledge you, I will. Don't worry, I will always love you no matter what."

Acknowledge? You will always love … me? No matter? I blinked. What was going on here? What was she talking about? What did she mean by acknowledgement and father? Certainly, there was some crucial piece of information that I was missing. The only question was _what_ exactly? I had to solve this mysterious puzzle. I tried to scratch my head.

The woman took a deep breath and shone a radiant smile at me as she greeted me, "I will give you the name Asami, Minami Asami."

...

...

...

...

...

Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttt!?

My eyes widened in realisation as it finally dawned on me what had exactly happened to me. This wasn't possible, this shouldn't be possible. A name, a name, a name. I was given a name, this was my name. I lost any force in my limbs as a feeling overcame me, making me feel as though the world around me had shattered. I cried as loudly as my newborn lungs were able.

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	2. Arc I Chapter I

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter I**

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 **Classification: Top secret!**

 **Only for personnel in possession of necessary security clearance! Any act of unauthorized publication may be liable to prosecution by the competent authorities!**

 **Date: ?.?.?**

 **Position: ?**

 **Field report: Current situation and possible future actions**

 **1) Location**

 **2) Time**

 **3) Status**

 **4) Language barrier**

 **5) Magic**

 **6) Conclusions**

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 **1) Location:**

Based on the circumstances and the mounting evidence, *cough* there are many tatami mats lying on the floor, and paper-thingy-like doors, and not to mention a vast traditional feng shui inspired garden *cough*, I can assume that I am somewhere in Asia. Somewhere in East Asia probably, albeit that isn't exactly helpful considering its vast size. Realistically, I could be anywhere and nowhere. Great, just great.

The fact that subject X, henceforth referred to as 'mother', or utilizing the local designation 'Oka-san', was speaking a language which could be described as Japanese supports my 'Asia' thesis.

For additional ideas concerning my possible location, read the magic section below.

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 **2) Time:**

A further parameter which I wasn't able to determine satisfactorily is 'time'. I'm not totally sure about that, but it should still be the same year. I suppose … I assume … Well, I hope.

However, judging by actual observations, I am either stuck in an over-formal conservative traditional household or was catapulted back into the pre-industrial Stone Age. Hopefully, it's the former. Because, I've detected a worrying absence of important civilisatory achievements, such as electricity.

The above mentioned issue requires further analysis and should be prioritized under any circumstances. After all, I wouldn't like to have to cook my meals on an open fire and to heat my bathtub using firewood. I would miss the daily commodities and all the luxuries of modern life.

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 **3) Status:**

In regard to my current status, I can offer more substantial conclusions.

It seems that I am the victim of some kind of mysterious reincarnation process. Because it is evident that I have been assigned a completely new body by virtue of being born, or rather reborn. Theoretically, it could be some type of possession as well. In the sense that my soul had, which was comparable to an evil spirit or demon, slowly overtaken the body of this poor unborn child. Muahahahahahaha. Nevertheless, the rebirth theory seems to be the overall more likely scenario.

As a consequence, I am now trapped in a weak and frail body. Therefore, my information gathering ability and mobility are relatively limited until I can crawl and toddle around at my own leisure.

And speaking of forgetting, these interchanging periods of awareness and unawareness make any sort of coherent thoughts and concentrating in general very difficult, if not outright impossible. I am a newborn infant and suffer therefore from the many, many, many, many drawbacks of such an existence, and I can assure you that you don't want to change places with me.

At the moment, it is not possible to make a reliable estimation until an adequate operating time can be achieved.

Aside from being completely incapacitated, my mana core is now anchored to my newly-gained body and is surprisingly active too. Fortunately, I hadn't noticed any serious complications yet. Well, there were a few things perhaps, but it's nothing major. There were only a few cases of rampant mana trying to kill me or at least rip me apart because my body can ́t handle such a large reservoir of mana. But my sheer willpower and a lot of coercion did the trick. After all, why shouldn't I be able to reign in a few unruly droplets of mana?

Otherwise, I was given enough nutrients to grow. And I was constantly watched by a very, very, very protective Oka-san. Oka-san doted on me and showered me with her love whenever possible. I was her precious little treasure and she adored the cute little me. I was hers, and hers alone, and nobody else would ever lay a hand on me besides her. I don't know about this, but was this really normal?

Anyway, I am still unsure about whether I should reciprocate her love or not, but the odds are good that I will choose to return her love. Because ignoring her would be too heartless even for me. Not to mention, I find it rather difficult to dislike her. Aside from a few faults she has, Oka-san is just far too … kind and gentle.

While Oka-san loved me above all else, I still don't know my own father and I never will probably. A few visitors had congratulated Oka-san on my birth and casually asked who the father might be. Oka-san scowled and the pure undiluted hatred was visible across her whole face. She hates him.

He hadn't deemed it necessary yet to appear before me, which doesn't leave a particularly good impression on me. Not that I despise the honourless bastard for his irresponsible act of simply abandoning Oka-san and a helpless child. He left Oka-san. He abandoned her. He betrayed her, and I certainly won't forgive him.

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 **4) Language barrier:**

It may be surprising, but for some inexplicable reason I am somehow able to more or less understand the people around me, which is peculiar. I understand what all people around me say and I have absolutely no idea why. And on top of that, I even know how to speak as if I had been miraculously imbued with all of this inherent knowledge.

Speaking is technically the wrong term, though. To the amusement of my family and my happily smiling Oka-san, I still stumble over every single syllable without exception. Damn vowels, damn consonants.

Nevertheless, I am lucky, or rather extremely lucky that I can comprehend the majority of their conversations. If the subject became slightly more complicated, then I am put out of action. Furthermore, I think, by the way, that they are speaking deliberately slower in a more accentuated manner while in my vicinity. You know, like slowly pronouncing every single word while pointing at various objects. This is a desk, this is a wall, this is the sky, this is … I know Oka-san harbours only good intentions and loves me dearly, but her unlimited love can be nevertheless sometimes horribly annoying, not to mention incredibly annoying.

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 **5) Magic:**

There is nothing new to report or what could be considered important.

The described mana signatures can be still classified on average as weak, negligible, barely considerable, or mediocre. Nevertheless, I have noticed a few impressive exceptions. Especially, one specific signaturegained my interest. The signature always tended to appear at the far end of my sensor range and even then I could sense clearly this incredibly strong presence. It was a giant red mass of constrained mana, which is seemingly alive. It radiates an aura of endlessly boiling anger, hatred, and resentment.

Furthermore, I have registered an interesting, not to say annoying, dichotomy within the local version of mana and a series of other strange characteristics. Apparently, this version of mana can change into five different stable and interchangeable states, which was something I have never encountered before and highly interesting.

All this leads me to the inevitable conclusion that I was indeed transported into another world.

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 **6) Conclusion: Inconclusive situation**

My plan to go on a full rampage and randomly massacre people looks more favourable with every day passing.

Because you can't possibly comprehend how incredibly taxing it is for your mental health and primarily boring to be trapped in the body of a baby.

It is one of the most brutal ways of torture to be condemned to a monotonic inactivity and a slow gradual death by sheer boredom. It was horrible. Day in, day out, I just lie around motionless and do nothing. It drives me nuts and I feel as though I am about to lose the rest of my remaining sanity. Aargh, I seriously need to hit, kick, punch, or preferentially destroy something.

 **PS:** Memo to myself, I have to train my puppy eyes for the future. Because nobody can resist a girl's puppy eyes unless you have a heart made from stone.

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	3. Arc I Chapter II

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter II**

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I was staring right into a well-crafted and primarily a rather expensive mirror. A golden frame carried the precious glass and what I saw was my now petite form. Her appearance was that of an adorable little girl, three years at most. She was looking right back at me and imitated all of my movements perfectly and without a single mistake. I raised my arm and she raised her arm. I tilted my head and she tilted her head. I furrowed my eyebrow and she furrowed. I smiled and she smiled. We were both identical, indistinguishable, inseparable. I was her.

I extended my tiny arm and touched the cold glass. Our both hands connected and I was staring into her wonderfully black eyes and she into mine. I often lost myself and looked at my deceiving simulacrum with strange curiosity.

It was hard to realise. No, it was rather hard to accept that I was currently looking at myself and not a strange illusion. I was still not completely used to my new appearance, my new mask. Was I truly her? Was I truly Asami?

Yes, I was. A smirk crossed my face and the surrealistic facsimile in front of me shattered into tiny pieces. My image reconstructed and formed again the reflection of a little girl, a girl called Asami.

No matter how I might look like, I was still the same as ever before. Nothing had changed, I was Asami and Asami was me.

"I am Asami, Asami, Asami …", my delicate lips whispered and I repeated my name with a growing sense of satisfaction. Once, twice, thrice, and so on. I really liked the name and my appearance.

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Enveloped by an exhilarating feeling of vainglorious vanity, Asami marvelled at herself and newly gained beauty. As far as she could tell, she had certainly a lucky draw in the lottery of life. She was nothing short of absolutely stunning, or at least she would be absolutely stunning. She had inherited almost all of Oka-san's prominent features, her pale skin, her cheekbones, her black silken hair, her wonderful lips, everything. Everything except for her onyx black eyes. Two gems of abyss-like darkness that were seemingly staring back at her, gazing into my very soul. Which was a tiny, tiny bit unsettling in her opinion, but nothing to worry about. These eyes were hers and their uncanny touch had already grown close to her heart. Asami loved them exactly like they were right now and she wouldn't change them for anything.

Apart from her undoubtedly remarkable genetics, the final product was nevertheless way too perfect, not to say unnatural in a certain sense. Her appearance resembled almost an artificial doll, which was rather disturbing. You know, looking like a doll wasn't exactly ... normal and her appearance felt sometimes simply wrong. Asami touched her wonderfully soft skin. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't spot a single imperfection. No wrinkle, no mole, absolutely nothing she could complain about. She was seemingly perfect. And that greatly annoyed Asami. She was pure fluffy perfection, but she didn't know why.

Based on her personal observations, there probably existed some kind of invisible correlation, which wasn't exactly rocket science, between unnatural beauty and vitality and the amount of mana running through your veins that the locals apparently called "Chakra".

She overheard the term that in the vicinity of mana rich individuals and the connection was quickly made, mana equaled Chakra, probably. And she learned later that these people in question were called ninja or shinobi, which was interesting.

Said shinobi appeared to be in possession of a variety of strange abnormal traits together with people in general. They had, for example, strange hair and eye colours. From pink, red, blue, white, green to heterochromatic, everything was present across the entire spectrum.

Furthermore, mentioned ninja were mostly people clad in green flak jackets and wore super-fancy iron plate bandanas that made them all look like stupid fools. And these shinobi carried themselves with obvious pride as if they were actually the rulers of the world, which was interesting. Therefore, she logically assumed these prideful assholes had to be either some kind of local militia or police force based on their flack jackets uniform. She really hoped they were only a low quality garison force stationed here in the village where they couldn't do too much damage apart from being totally inept. Otherwise, ...

Full of curiosity and using her puppy eyes successfully, she asked Oka-san who these amateurish stupid idiots were? Clearly, in a friendlier way more becoming to a little slight scowl on her face didn't go unnoticed and the fact that Oka-san was rather reluctant to answer her Innocent question.

They were shinobi and apparently, she was wrong. They were neither a simple militia nor a police force. In fact, these guys were somehow supposed to be a full-fledged military force. That was a joke, right? No, it wasn't. They were indeed Konoha's official military.

And judging by their behaviour and their general impression, they weren't a particular good one, not to say the majority of the green flak jacket guys were incompetent and completely useless in a real fight.

They were disorganized. They were undisciplined. They were ignorant, careless, naive They were continuously drawing unnecessary attention. They were cocky and cockiness was in her experience not famous for its not forgetting, the majority of this force seemed to be entirely composed of children and prepubescent teenagers. In short, she trusted these shinobi only as far as she could throw them, which wasn't much. She didn't see military force you could fight, not to mention win a war , Asami pitied them. Shinobi were just worthless cannon fodder destined to die without a reason.

Anyway, she gathered all this information when her strongly overprotective Oka-san took her once out to the market district to buy food, which was of the rare times she actually allowed to leave the house. Oka-san cherished her. Nevertheless, her love was perhaps a bit too much. Asami smiled. But she didn't care particularly. Oka-san loved her and that was everything that mattered.

While they were both strolling through the streets, or to be exact hiding behind Oka-san's protective silhouette, she had the opportunity to explore the village called Konohagakure no Sato as a whole.

Aside from the fact that she was neither impressed nor fascinated by this better provincial town, she finally had a seriously, who was the fucking idiot that had chosen this idiotic name? Konoha was neither a village by any normal standards nor hidden.

How could anyone think that a city sized structure with a perfectly spottable Mount Rushmore imitation and surrounded by the a fucking gigantic wall in the middle of nowhere could defined as "hidden"? Well, she didn't. And yes, you heard right, a wall. It was beyond her why Konoha still relied on such an archaic form of fortification . But she was only a cute little girl with very fluffy cheeks. So, what did she know?

After all, it was not really her problem if the entire village was the prime example of a sitting duck and only waited to be attacked . Konoha was their sole base of operation and their centre of gravity. Everything depended on this village and if Konoha fell, then Konoha fell. As a matter of fact, all the buildings that were destroyed during this mysterious Kyubi attack proved her point only further, a centralized command structure like Konoha was always a stupid idea. Yes, a really stupid idea.

Asami smirked and stared at her wonderful mirror," I am really a cute and adorable child, am I n ..."

"Asami-chan, what are you doing there again?"

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"Asami-chan, that was the 10th time I catch you standing in front of the mirror. If you continue to do that, then you will one day starve to death and I certainly don't want that to happen to my cute little treasure, right?" before Asami could escape her insidious attack, Oka-san grabbed her and pinched her fluffy cheeks against her will. She didn't like this kind of things and Oka-san knew that perfectly well. Nevertheless, she always did it and Asami couldn't defend herself.

As a consequence, a certain girl was slowly squeezed to death by a certain loving Oka-san. Help, help, help …

Okaa-san smiled threateningly, "Otherwise, I think that I have to take your beloved mirror away, Asami-chan. And you don't want that, do you?" Quick, diversion, diversion _._

Asami looked ashamed at the ground before a pair of guilty and the most innocent looking puppy eyes ever greeted a surprised Oka-san, "Well, I was only wondering whether I will ever look as beautiful as Oka-san",

Negative, ineffective. Ineffective. Manoeuvre omega, manoeuvre omega. Hug her, hug her, hug her.

Asami tried to hug her with her tiny arm and Oka-san's face lit up with happiness pinched her even stronger. Oka-san petted her head," How sweet of you, Asami-chan. I am sure you will steal and break the hearts of many men in the future."

Asami smiled secretly. Success. As usual, hugging was super effective against Oka-san and worked 100% of the times.

"Oka-san, why are you here?" Asami titled her head curiously.

"I was looking for you, Asami-chan, because we are getting a visitor today and you have to be presentable", Asami frowned visibly. She wasn't particularly amused. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, she was certainly not going to be dressed up like a doll again. One time was enough for the rest of her hopefully long life. To hell with death before dishonour.

Asami opted for a tactical retreat and tried to flee the battlefield as inconspicuously as possible, namely moving very, very, very, very slowly towards the still open door. Before she reached the portal of her salvation, however, Asami was forcefully grabbed by her collar.

"Where do you think are you going, Asami-chan?" Oka-san smiled and her suave and lovely voice promised unimaginable pain. Escape was impossible.

"Ehm, ehr, ehr", thus Asami was captured and taken away. They arrived at her personal changing room. Yes, surprise, surprise, she had a changing room. And then she was stuffed into a certainly expensive blue coloured kimono because Oka-san had apparently a secret fable for them and she loved to dress her up. How much did her kimono cost again?Well, she didn't know, but she certainly liked the blue, the wide cut, and not forgetting the soft silk. She loved silk.

As you might have noticed by now, she was not exactly struck by poverty. Because apparently, her grandparents, Oka-san and she were part of Konoha's civilian class and of these flashy shinobi clans. Fortunately, her family was a rather important weapon manufacturer and supplier for the village. They produced kunai, explosive-tags and basically all the other expensive ninja stuff en masse. Did you need scrolls? Come to them. Did you want an excellent chakra blade? Then once again, come to them, albeit it wouldn't exactly cheap. In the end, her suspicions were correct and was indeed filthy rich. Yes, she was rich, rich, rich, rich, a wonderful feeling. The richest girl in Konoha, maybe, perhaps, probably not.

Nevertheless, there seemed to exist in the village an ever-present distinction between civilians and clansmen/ shinobi. There was an invisible barrier that separated the majority of the civilian population from the all-powerful shinobi elite.

After all, wasn't it a weird coincidence that all the important positions within the village were primarily occupied by the ruling shinobi aristocracy and the rest of their associated sycophantic clan members? Well, she didn't.

The public administration. Who were these apparatchiks sitting behind their office desks? Exactly, shinobi. The public health care system? Who were all the important doctors? Weren't they all so called Iryo-nin? Yes, they were. And what about Konoha's police force? Weren't they exclusively recruited from a single clan, the Uchiha clan?

All power in the village was de facto concentrated in the hands of a small oligarchy of shinobi, which wasn't that surprising considering human nature and the fact that Konoha was in the end a hidden village ruled by shinobi.

After being dressed, Oka-san led her to the nearby visiting room that was normally used for representative purposes. Asami mustered all of her available sweetness, "Oka-san, Oka-san, Oka-san, I am curious, who is visiting us today?"

"Only an old childhood friend chatting with me about the old times, Asami-chan", Oka-san entered the room and they waited for one minute, two minutes, half an hour. Until a woman finally entered while Asami was already playing with her long hair because she was horribly bored.

"Step forward and introduce yourself, Asami-chan" _,_ Oka-san encouraged her with a smile and Asami grudgingly stepped forward. Stupid customary pleasantries, stupid etiquette.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, I am Asami", Asami slightly bowed and was armed with an innocent and insincere smile that neither Oka-san nor the woman saw through.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, I am Hama. How polite and cute you are. I see, your Oka-san didn't lie when she was always boasting about her little treasure."

"Really, did she? I suppose my loving Oka-san has the tendency to exaggerate a bit when it comes to me, Hama. But I can assure you that the majority of her claims are probably insubstantial", Asami furrowed her eyebrow and answered with a happy smile.

Hama blinked a few times and stared at her in a very strange way. Had she done something wrong? No, unlikely. Asami tilted her bored head in confusion.

"Well, I don't think so. She told me yesterday that you are quite the prodigy, an incomparable fast learner and highly intelligent, Asami-chan", Hama praised her while Asami had to roll her eyes.

Sure, sure, she hoped so. As if learning reading, speaking, writing and all these other stupid baby crap represented a serious challenge. From an outside perspective, she might have been a prodigy, but certainly not from her perspective.

Instead, it would have been bloody embarrassing to fail in one of these simple tasks while competing with goddamn toddlers. Imagine, the high and mighty her beaten of all things by literacy, by literacy. In that case she would have shot herself on the spot. A sudden shiver of purely hypothetical shame overcame Asami and ran down her spinal column.

After sitting down, Oka-san and Hama were talking about various mundane, in my opinion mostly boring, topics she didn't really care about. As usual, Asami stayed a silent bystander and was fighting against her inner desire to fall asleep and take a nap. She was sleepy and the ground was suddenly so strangely inviting. But then something interesting came up, something that drew her attention.

"Hama, tell me, isn't Shino already 6-years-old and doesn't he plan to graduate from the academy to become a shinobi?"

Academy? Shinobi? There existed an academy for shinobi? But to be fair, that wasn't exactly surprising. After all, these shinobi had to come from somewhere and they certainly didn't grow on trees. But seriously, 6- years-old? That was young, way too young.

Was Konoha's manpower situation really so desperate that Konoha was sending waves of child soldiers with practically no combat value whatsoever to the frontlines? Asami wasinteriorlyhorrified by this lunacy and blinked. She hoped she didn't hear right.

"Yes, Shino is training night and day to pass the admission exams next week. He hopes that he will make it into one of the exclusive premium clan classes with all clan children", Hama spoke proudly while Asami was still focused on the sheer stupidity of deploying children, which called for nothing else than constant trouble. But perhaps she should join the academy too. After all, being a ninja sounded like a lot of fun, didn't it? Asami smiled mischievously and her black eyes glimmered in delight.

Asami interrupted the ongoing conservation with a curious look and pulled on her sleeves, "Oka-san, Oka-san, Oka-san, Oka-san, can I become a shinobi too?" Fuelled by childish glee, Asami beamed and Oka-san fell suddenly very silent.

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	4. Arc I Chapter III

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter III**

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"Oka-san, can I become a shinobi too?" Oka-san and Hama gave her a bewildered look. For some reasons, they looked both confused and a certain girl couldn't comprehend why. Wasn't it perfectly normal for a girl of her age to want to become a Kunoichi? Yes, it was.

Asami tilted her head while sitting on her knees around a table placed in the middle of the room, which she still wasn't completely used to and sitting like this was absolutely not as comfortable as it looked like, not to say it started to hurt like hell after a few minutes until your legs were so numbed by pain, pain and even more pain that you just didn't feel anything anymore and every time she got up she had the feeling that she had been nearly disabled for the rest of her life. At the moment, Asami would have been therefore grateful for a sturdy wooden object commonly called chair, a kingdom for a chair. Asami sighed mentally in disappointment. Unfortunately, her wish wouldn't come true and a chair was still far away.

Oka-san and Hama still stared at her and Asami still didn't understand why. After all, she certainly would make for a good Kunoichi, wouldn't she?

"Asami-chan, why are you saying something like that? You shouldn't become a shinobi. Being a shinobi is dangerous and you could die", Asami rolled her eyes annoyed by this kind of sophistry. You know, you could die if you can die. Yes, that was clear.

"Don't think that being a shinobi is a harmless game. And nobody forces you to be one anyway, my little princess", Oka-san pinched her chubby cheeks affectionately and visibly worried about her future well-being.

Asami was surprised by her mother's fierce opposition to her innocuous question, "Why? Oka-san, if Shino can be a ninja, then why can I not be a ninja too?"

Oka-san tensed up and fell into deep thought. Nobody could beat the logic of a child, clearly provided that you didn't want to disappoint them and let a child's card house of faulty expectations crumble under the weight of reality, which I strongly doubted Oka-san had the courage to do. She simply couldn't deny her anything and therefore Asami had just to beg as long as she got what I wanted.

"Asami-chan, as I told you before, deciding on being a ninja is not a simple and rashly made decision. You should know that it is a life changing choice to go down this path. Becoming a ninja is as a matter of fact very dangerous, aside from the fact that your constitution simply doesn't allow it. Asami-chan, you are way too frail and weak", Oka-san grew more concerned with every word and Asami finally realised why.

Oka-san was playing the detrimental to your future health and let the stronger men handle it card. But to be fair, she had a point, and a strong too. Because even Asami had grudgingly to admit that she suffered from an objectively unfavourable constitution, which was horribly annoying.

Furthermore, her reasoning didn't seem to be a product of plain old patriarchalism. Because you could tell her all the bullshit you want, there had to be a reason behind the very obvious fact that in total there were obviously more male shinobi around than Kunoichi, *cough* always this single random girl in these three-man Genin teams *cough*.

Considering that Chakra was, judging by her observations, more or less distributed equally, conventional logic would dictate that an equal percentage of both the female and male population should be eligible for serving as a ninja because the decisive factor should be a person's Chakra reserves. Nevertheless, the ratio was leaning strongly towards a certain direction.

Memo to herself, further research necessary to determine whether the 2:1 team constellation was a mechanism to promote artificial propinquity and possible future love relationships between teammates of the opposite sex. But why of all things a stupid love triangle was another question altogether.

Moreover, wasn't it incredibly stupid idea to even consider to send irrational teenagers in their puberty placed into random teams on what they called missions? After all, what could possibly happen? Nothing? Because there were no tactical and operational risks whatsoever.

Anyway, well played Oka-san, well played indeed. Dammit, she spaced out again.

After having drifted away for a short amount of time into her own little dreamy world, Asami focused back on reality and her mind quickly raced through various scenarios and tried to discover the best way to salvage the current for answer. Way to persuade Oka-san. Best course of action. Nonsensical standard answer x. Fight to protect?

"Because I want to protect Oka-san with everything I have", Asami pumped her tiny fists didn't exactly support her argument. Bad choice, a lapse in judgement, the old protecting line was so cliché and she was quite sure that it guaranteedly wouldn't work. However, they had to be cliché for a reason.

Hama was quite touched by her sudden declaration while Oka-san appeared to be neither convinced nor relieved by her cheerful words. She was still worried. Because ultimately, Oka-san was right, she was weak and frail. And she couldn't know that she had a gigantic amount of chakra on her side.

"Please, please, please", Asami supported her persuasion efforts with continuous childish pleas and eventually she succeeded and broke Oka-san's defence.

"Okay, we will talk about it later then, Asami-chan", Oka-san sighed and finally gave in to her combined assault of adorable cuteness and underhanded tricks, namely threatening her tacitly to throw a temper tantrum right in front of their guest if she didn't cooperate.

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Hama left and Oka-san took her hand leading her back into the visiting room.

Asami sat down and relaxed. But she couldn't relax in the comfortable sense of the word. The present atmosphere was icy and the silence was heavy, suffocating, insufferable. Eventually, Oka-san broke the silence.

"Is that really what you want? To become one of them, a ninja, Asami-chan?" Oka-san fell silent speaking the words "shinobi" and "them" in an underlying venomous tone.

"Why not? I want to protect you too, Oka-san. And don't shinobi fight to protect?" Asami repeated her mantra from before and avoided her saddened eyes by looking at the ground.

Suddenly, Oka-san hugged her tightly and caressed her back with her soft loving hands, "Asami, shinobi do not only fight to protect. Because I can tell you that they are also a bunch of spineless cowards without honour. Especially, your father."

So, her contempt for shinobi was related to her father? Oka-san let her go and Asami stared at her retreating figure.

After a few seconds, she continued. The feeling of sadness and swelling anger was tangible in the air, "Once I believed too in the tale of the shining protector, the ever-watchful guardian of the will of fire, the one big family. Back then when I was young and I still looked up to them. My greatest wish was to become one of these heroes. But not everyone's dreams are destined to be become true, Asami. I wanted to become a Kunoichi like you, but like you I was unfortunately way too frail and weak and never met the requirements to enter the academy. In the end, the years passed and my dreams died, but not my faith in shinobi and their ideals."

Oka-san made a long pause and hesitated," I loved one of them, a dashing aspiring Chunin. It was love on first sight and I was naive."

Asami observed her beloved Oka-san. Her limbs continued to stiffen more and more, "I didn't care whether it was unrequited or purely one-sided love. I continuously tried to confess to him, but every time I tried, I couldn't bring up the necessary courage and hesitated. And then one day, I was able to muster all my strength, and imagine, Asami, I succeeded. He didn't reject my confession."

"Drunk on love, I let loose of my rationality and ignored all the in retrospect obvious warning signs. We met after that more often and then you came, Asami."

Oka-san marched forward on her arduous path," I was so excited back then. Now we could finally live together as a family. I confronted him on the street and told him about you, him and his fellow shinobi." Her watery eyes cried and more and more tears dropped on the ground. She was betrayed, hurt, and deeply wounded.

Oka-san clenched her fists, "Your father slapped me right into my face and said that he didn't even know who I am. He laughed at my crumbling ego and looked down on me. The truth was that he despised me and he would have never chosen such a filthy whore like me. Because a useless woman like me was so far beneath him and not worth his attention."

"And that moment I realised that they were also just humans. Shinobi are no heroes, but only normal humans driven by their desires and own interests. In the end, Asami, shinobi only care for themselves despite pretending otherwise. Because these shinobi are only a family among themselves. They take without asking and we normal people give without complaining. They take because they can and we give because we have to. Ultimately, we are worthless in their eyes while they are everything only because they are shinobi, only because they are strong and we weak", Oka-san cried and broke down. She kneeled on the hard ground, but her bitter tears didn't stop.

Her heart was broken and she needed someone that protected her, "I can't bear to lose you too to them. I don't want that you leave me too."

Asami's saddened eyes were staring at the tragic wreckage of a human life, the life of a way too gentle soul that poisoned by grief, shattered by the uncaring waves of destiny and deeply wounded. It hurt and Asami's heart felt sorry for beloved Oka-san. She didn't deserve such a fate, she didn't.

Asami stood up and approached her crying Oka-san. Her tiny arms hugged her and shielded her from all the evil of this cruel world. She didn't stop until her sobbing finally stopped. Oka-san cried enough.

To the person that only showed her kindness and showered her with unconditional love Asami dedicated this. She leaned down and whispered into her ears swearing with unmatched finality, "Oka-san, I will never leave you. I will always stand at you side, even if the entire ..."

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A few days after her little emotional rescue mission, Asami accompanied by Oka-san went to a doctor-nin? No, medic-nin? What was the name of these guys again? Ehmmmm, exactly Iryo-nin or something similar.

Anyways, Oka-san advised her that she should be tested whether she even possessed enough Chakra to start her ninja career, which shouldn't be a real issue, however. As far as she could tell, her Chakra reserves were considerable, not to say fucking extremely huge compared to 99.99999999999999999% of the shinobi she had met until now. Apparently, she was born really lucky with a lot of Chakra.

And to test her other physical specifications, which could be problematic considering that she could barely lift a weight with her whole strength, not to mention running because of her disastrous stamina.

Oka-san didn't particularly like her decision, which was understandable. Nevertheless, she supported her and her ambitions. In fact, Oka-san was little bit proud of her little princess and she was visibly smiling, which made Asami as a consequence also happy.

They entered the designated room and were greeted by a variety of medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, narcotics and other various tools. Asami looked at the objects with a certain sense of confusion and fascination. She couldn't comprehend it was possible that this world was so advanced in the field of medicine while being so extremely backwards in others. Apparently, this world understood the basics of petro chemistry and electromagnetism judging by the abundant use of plastic and electricity all over the place, but they were nevertheless unable to produce a vehicle suitable for mass transportation aside from wooden carts and basic firearms. Strange, strange, very strange.

The door opened up and Asami turned away from the riddle of inconsistent technological advancement. The moment she saw the Iryo-nin in his silly white robes, Asami broke out in uncontrolled laughter," Who is the genius who designed these marvellous robes?" Had these Iryo-nin no sense of honour and didn't they notice how silly they looked in their stupid pyjama suites.

The doctor gave her a well-deserved disapproving look after her blatant insult, which didn't impress her in the slightest. The man had to try harder and with his frog-like appearance and his white gown, she had to seriously doubt his medical qualification. Did her friend even know the difference between dexter sinister? Well, Asami wasn't too sure.

After completing a handful of short physical tests with a little bit of help, she clearly cheated during by using minuscule amounts of Chakra, the decisive Chakra evaluation came, which was in her opinion the most important one. In the end, when push came to shove, everything depended on your Chakra reserves and nothing else. Chakra led the way.

"Interesting, very interesting", the doctor turned to Oka-san and evaluated her magical performance," To be honest, I didn't expect something like this. As far as I can see, your daughter appears to be in possession of truly substantial Chakra reserves considering her age group. In fact, they are way, way too high. Especially, the Yin values within her chakra are completely off the charts. Her Yin and Yang ratio favours heavily, not say almost completely, of her spiritual energy with 95% Yin, which would partially explain her frail body and hampered physical development. Your daughter doesn't have the necessary amount of Yang to counterbalance her dominating Yin, which could potentially lead to a few health problems in the future."

For Asami, however, said imbalance wasn't really that surprising. She pratcially consisted of pure Yin, wasn't that funny? And fortunately _,_ the man didn't notice that she deliberately reduced the amount of Chakra during his little Chakra test to a minimum. After all, he didn't necessarily have to know how much Chakra was hidden within a certain petite girl.

"Furthermore, Asami possesses by all standards an excellent Chakra control that comes almost naturally to her. Either your daughter is a naturally gifted or she was already trained by any other clansmen how to use her Chakra?" the man smiled at Oka-san and waited for her anwser.

"No, not as far as I know. My daughter and I are civilians", Oka-san replied brusquely.

The man blinked a few times and visibly surprised by this sudden revelation," Civilians? No clan? Strange, strange, but not exactly unheard of. It might be quite unusual, but it is indeed … possible. Because in my experience, children with such enormous Chakra reserves stem normally from the more prominent and powerful shinobi lineages like, for example, the Hyuga, Akimichi, Aburame, etc."

"I even think that with her readings and looks Asami could theoretically pass as a Nara or Uchiha who both have a generally strong Yin based disposition. By the way, who is her father? Because he is marked here in the documents as unknown", Oka-san quickly tensed up and gave the man a murdering glare capable of galvanizing the poor bastard alive.

The man smiled uneasily, "I see, that is apparently a bit of a mood point. Then I will try to finish up this quickly. In summary, your daughter is more or less perfectly eligible for becoming a Kunoichi. Despite her rather unfavourable physical constitution, Asami should enter the academy I my opinion as soon as possible, not to say immediately. She has talent, a lot of talent."

"Furthermore, I heartily recommend her to specialise in Genjutsu or medical Ninjutsu because of her prodigious Chakra control. Based on my experiences, both should probably come relatively easily to her and not represent a serious challenge. And it certainly wouldn't hurt if we could count on a further talented medic to join our ranks", the man smiled.

"What, a medic? That is absolute nonsense and certainly one of the better jokes I heard during my admittedly short lifetime. Because that is definitely not going to happen as long as I still have a single brain cell", Asami furrowed her annoyed eyebrow and protested openly.

Medic, really medic. How could he even dare to mention such nonsense right in front of her. Because hell would freeze over rather than her becoming a good for nothing glorified field nurse for some stupid wounded idiots. In conclusion, she was no fucking useless healer type and damsel in distress, she was a frontline fighter.

An angered girl pulled the long sleeves of Oka-san's kimono and suggested to leave this stupid place.

Afterwards, Asami stormed out of the room and left a doctor behind that was mildly surprised by her forceful and almost violent opposition. Oka-san simply sighed and shrugged her shoulders to answer the doctor's questioning look. She was already used to her sometimes difficult character and was condemned, ehm, had learned to put up with her antics. Oka-san followed and caught her precious Asami soon. She took her daughter's hand and her warm and soft hand guided Asami protectively as always. And unnoticeable to her, Asami's lips briefly smiled.

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	5. Arc I Chapter IV

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter IV**

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Asami was standing on the grounds of a large foundry, the main foundry of her family in Konoha. The place was neither the gigantic military industrial complex nor equipped with the production capabilities a certain girl had originally hoped for. In short, it wasn't Asami Heavy Industries. Asami sighed and accepted that her expectations might have been slightly exaggerated from the beginning. Because all in all, facility was small, compact and mostly sufficient for her purposes.

A happy girl was surrounded by a variety of workshops, smithies and forges manufacturing a lot of wonderful weapons made out of hardened metal. The pleasant odour of molten steel and iron drifted in the air which was simply wonderful. Asami enjoyed the sight of such industry and diligence.

She was excited by the sheer elegance of the assembled weaponry and the prospect of getting a lovely sword. After all, someone like her had to be adequately equipped with weaponry of her choice, which was one of the perks of being not only rich, but also being in possession of the necessary industrial capacities, or rather the advantage of being a "mere" civilian and not being stuck as an underpaid and impoverished grunt in the Genin corps. Contrary to them, she could get all the exclusive customized stuff the cool kids had because the word price was of little significance for her.

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While exploring the surrounding foundry area, Asami, the little daydreamer she was, drifted off into her beloved mental landscape. In the meanwhile, she was guided by a man called Shigemori to an unspecific forge. He was a simple worker and the man who was designated to accompany and watch over her by Oka-san. Because Asami had to invest some serious time and effort in begging and smiling Oka-san into submission in order to come here.

When she was still little… Well, technically she was still little, but that was secondary at the moment. Anyway, when she was still little, an overprotective Oka-san didn't even let her get close of a kitchen knife or anything else that could be considered mildly dangerous, not to mention something like swords. Nevertheless, Oka-san fully supported now her wish now to start a shinobi career, which was kind of paradoxical in her opinion. On one hand, Oka-san didn't let her use a scissor without her supervision, but on the other hand she was encouraging her to become a Kunoichi and had given her a kunai, strange. But Asami supposed that love was well-known to be often blind and irrational.

Shigemori and Asami approached a certain smithy of a certain smith that was according to her knowledge specifically tasked with the more special kind of work and not the standard stuff, namely the production of the top of the line equipment that was mainly reserved to high ranking Jonin, Anbu and people like her who had the necessary money. After all, she deserved only the best of the best of the best, and even that wasn't good enough for her.

Anyway, Shigemori was dispatched to advise, *cough* a certain someone nearby who didn't require his assistance *cough*, her on what kind of weapon she should choose. His presence wasn't really necessary, however, because Asami already knew what her grilish heart desired. Asami wanted a sword, a short, robust and stabby sword that was light if possible. Why a sword, though? Well, because a sword was a sword was a sword was a sword and everybody likes swords, or at least a happy Asami liked swords. And what would be a main character without a sword? Yes, exactly, a main character without a sword was unacceptable.

Shigemori tried to engage her futilely in conversation, but Asami ignored him because she was mainly focused on swords. Moreover, he was repeatedly calling her Ojou-sama in an almost reverent tone, which certainly didn't stroke Asami's already inflated ego and which the little princess absolutely didn't appreciate. Praise did you get nowhere, but it was nevertheless helpful to improve your standing considerably.

They finally arrived and entered a dimly lit workshop. The present smith and his assistant turned towards them. The smith gave her a cautious look and inspected her, while his apprentice stood there in awe with his mouth hanging wide agape and his eyes staring at her.

Surprised by this atypical reaction, Asami furrowed her eyebrow. Hmm, why did this insolent brat keeping staring at her as if she was some kind of princess ... Asami mentally face palmed. Ah, how could she forget it, she was the little Ojou-sama right now.

The first one among many who had this initially confusing and later increasingly infuriating tendency to call her Ojou-sama was her nursemaid Samako who was a sympathetic woman apart from making her life a lot easier.

Samako had, and still has for that matter, the tendency to perpetually call her such with nearly infinite enthusiasm. "Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama." Over and over again, until Asami was running dangerously low on patience and Samako's voice began to haunt her even in her sleepless dreams.

Asami regarded it mostly as a joke and ignored Samako therefore. One day, however, she questioned Samako as a consequence of a particularly irritating session of Ojou-samas, "Why do you fucking bitch always call me Ojou-sama with your goddamn sardonic smile all over your face?" Clearly, Asami didn't say that and phrased her question in a more diplomatic way that was more becoming to her demeanour and not that direct.

Samako answered in her inherent cheerful manner and accompanied by the utmost confidence of stating a self-evident truth. And her response surprised Asami to say the least. Especially, the vivid poetic and completely exaggerated descriptions in between. And she could swear that I could actually hear her cheering at me during her entire sentence, which was, however, probably only my imagination, "Because you are most definitely an Ojou-sama, Asami-chan. The way you walk and look, like an eternal goddess of beauty who graces the mortal realm with her transcendental appearance.

The way you talk, the way you are always carefully deliberating the choice of all of your words as if you were stringing pearls on a thread, probably even the way you think. Every ounce of your being basically screams," Attention, little Ojou-sama approaching here"."

Asami welcomed her declaration only with a doubting furrowed eyebrow, a rather frequent childhood companion of her, and a simple incredulous," Sure, sure."

And that exact moment Asami realised what she had never noticed before because she had rarely interacted on a regular basis with other people except for Oka-san, her grandparents occasionally and Samako.

Asami was definitely not a normal girl, that much should have been pretty obvious from the beginning. A normal child would be energetic and lively. A normal child could be compared to a little radiating sunshine.

Well, Asami was the neither normal nor she was particularly energetic, plain and simple. Instead, she was special for obvious reasons. Asami didn't smile aside from using her lovely artificial and insincere smile and having to giggle sardonically from time to time.

She wasn't a lively being spreading an aura of baseless optimisms. In fact, she was quite the contrary, dismissing and blessed with a proud inner streak. She was arrogant and conceited, too often way too confident in her own success, and not forgetting a very envious person. She was irascible, stubborn and she had a long memory. Because Asami neither forgot nor forgave easily, she remembered her enemies.

To summarize, she was neither a nice nor pleasant person. Nevertheless, these traits made her an ideal candidate for the stuck up princess Ojou-sama. She had the money, the necessary pride, the petite doll-like appearance, she had everything. In short, Asami was the perfect paragon of an Ojou-sama.

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"I hope you have you seen enough, my friend", Asami directed her rather irritated eyes at the still staring boy and ended thus the uneasy growing stalemate. Asami sighed and gracefully strode forward in her rather formal attire of the more expensive kind.

Sadly, Oka-san didn't trust her with any brilliants because a wonderful necklace would have been nice. And that despite the fact that diamonds were supposed to be a girl's best friend.

Her kimono didn't particularly help to diminish the princess-like impression that she was already giving of. Well, it didn't matter in the end as she surely wouldn't change her habits and her sense of fashion that fast.

"So, what do we have here?" Asami's gaze lingered on a table with a variety of different weapons and metal bars.

"This is a collection of my finest products, I don't pride myself without reason on being called one of the best weapon makers in Konoha for the wealthier clientele, Ojou-sama", the smith finished his sentence with an obviously insincere smile. Did he really think that an amateur like him could fool her in a million years, that she was blind and wouldn't notice? Asami clenched her fist. So, she had to deal with one of these types. One of these that looked down on her and saw in her nothing more than a further little girl trying to play shinobi without the necessary ability to back it up.

And indeed, she looked like the typical rich Ojou-sama that had never left her comfortable secure fortress. These people underestimated her because of her appearance and because of her origin and she didn't like that at all. They didn't take her seriously and that was a mistake. Asami showed her annoyance and ignored his smug smirk, for now. The man would pay, that was sure.

Despite being interiorly enraged, Asami continued calmly, "Then I am pleased to make your acquaintance, ...?"

"Mitsuzuka, my name is Sera Mitsuzuka, Ojou-sama", Mitsuzuka stretched out the last word as if she couldn't hear him across the room.

This asshole, she would beat his stupid grin out of him with her bare hands if he decided to try her limited patience further. Miitsuzuka was walking on thin ice, very thin ice.

Asami presented her best threatening smile and Mitsuzuka suddenly stiffened visibly. Oh my, could that be really fear what he was currently feeling? Her inner sadist was pleased by this development and Asami replied undisturbed, "Then let us proceed, Mitsuzuka. So, what kind of weapon would the present honourable men recommend? A sword? A spear? Or something else?"

Not registering the underlying threatening tone in her innocent question, Shigemori helped her out," Because of your frail stature I would recommend something light, nimble and preferentially suiting your age group."

Asami rolled her eyes. Right, right, she knew perfectly well that at the moment she couldn't use any of these weapons to their full potential. Sadly, she was too weak. After all, how useful was a sword if you couldn't even carry it? The answer was not that much. And a sword was certainly not designed to be wielded by a 4-year-old girl, unfortunately.

Asami stepped forwards and grabbed a random sword. She evaluated the grip first and searched for the centre of gravity. She let her fingers slide along the edge and scanned the surface for any potential impurities in the steel with the help of her flowing Chakra. Her company was initially astonished by her action and the moment they recognized what she was doing they began sweating visibly. Especially, Shigemori and Mitsuzuka.

They didn't fear her, but they feared the wrath of an extremely overprotective Oka-san, which was a legitimate fear in her opinion. If her precious daughter got hurt by accidentally cutting herself with a sword, then their heads were going to roll soon, and not only figuratively.

Not bad, not bad. Especially, the quality of the steel was surprisingly good considering Konoha's lack of advanced metallurgical knowledge. Nevertheless, the steel wasn't exactly up to her desired standards of durability and flexibility. But she could live with that as long as she was feeding her sword with enough of her Chakra.

So, let's finish this in more amusing way and give them a good show. Asami smiled vindictively while inspecting their white faces that had paled considerably.

Therefore, she used some deliberately sloppy practicing swings with the blade to test the balance and primarily their patience. Shigemori's and Mitsuzuka's eyes grew wide and both tried to intervene. Because even a slightly injured Ojou-sama was still a very, very troublesome and problematic Ojou-sama. They were responsible for the girl and they were as good as dead if something happened that could have been easily prevented.

Before a worried Shigemori could intercept her, Asami tightened her grip on the blade and sliced diagonally through a nearby steel girder. She was fast, extremely fast, and she sincerely doubted that any of them were even able to follow her movements.

Imbued with her Chakra, her sword met with little resistance and went straight through the steel. The result was a perfectly clean cut slightly glowing in a vivid reddish tone thanks to the produced frictional heat and Asami hoped that the structural integrity of the building wasn't affect all too negatively. Because she wasn't particularly keen on being crushed by a collapsing roof.

The cut piece of steel fell and a certain never tiring perfectionist was focused on a tiny little detail. Enhancing her strength and speed with Chakra work rather well, but her strike nevertheless missed. Her strike was slightly off by a few millimetres, which was disappointing. To be honest, Asami had expected more from herself _._ This was inacceptable and had to be corrected _._

Using the rotational energy of her strike, Asami spun around her axis and threw her sword nailing the falling metal into the ground.

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A heavy silence fell over them and they seemed nearly frozen. Asami giggled amused and eventually cleared this uncomfortable atmosphere," Not bad, not bad at all. Your steel, Mitsuzuka, is better than expected to be honest and the quality should be sufficient for my purposes."

Without asking, Asami took one of the swords," Mitsuzuka, could I please get a straight version of this katana here? With all due respect to your products, but I personally prefer thrusting and stabbing over cutting. And I think that the curvature would be rather wasted on me, not to say outright detrimental."

Asami waited for her words to sink in. Mitsuzuka finally regained his composure.

" That can be arranged", he reported in a slightly strained voice. Asami didn't know if it was fear, respect or surprise?

Asami inspected the blade, "Excellent, excellent. Can the blade be elongated too? Because, this is unfortunately rather short and a longer blade for better reach would be honestly fantastic."

"That should be within my capabilities."

"Now the decisive question, should I go for single-edged or double-edged? Hmmm, hmmm, difficult, difficult", Asami was tipping her chin. She was thinking, and thinking, and thinking.

"After careful deliberation, I think that I will opt for the single-edged variant. After all, what can go wrong", Asami told them sweetly and while tilting her head. She was just a cute innocent girl and you could nearly lick the sugar in the air.

"And last but not least, Mitsuzuka, have you any form of proper high quality steel? I predict that my swords will have to take some hefty punishment in the future. And it wouldn't do if it prematurely snaps apart due to their possibly low material endurance. Because I strongly doubt that your folding alone will do the job, Mitsuzuka", Asami smiled sweetly.

"I will see it through", Mitsuzuka replied visibly intimidated by her small stature.

"Now that you have a rough idea of what I want, I will let you handle the rest and I hope you will exceed my expectations with you work. Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet you, Mitsuzuka" _,_ Asami put as much venom as possible into her girlish and sadly relatively unthreatening voice, which wasn't suitable for this kind of things.

In exchange, however, Asami accidentally released some of her interiorly boiling Chakra and struck fear into everyone present, which was delighting. She loved her Chakra. Asami was satisfied with her accomplishment and smiled, even though she was still irritated. She couldn't stand the feeling of being belittled. Sure, ignored perhaps, but absolutely not the feeling of me being belittled by people with delusions of grandeur. Asami would never accept being looked down upon because she was seemingly weak and powerless. Asami clenched her fists. She was neither weak nor powerless.

"And don't forget that I obviously want the Chakra conducting blades. And please make eight sets of them, one half for training purposes, and the other half. Well, you should know the best what those are intended for, Mitsuzuka", Asami ordered and left the room.

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When Asami entered her family's compound again, she was subsequently picked up by the ever-bright Samako. Diligently as ever, she took Asami by her tiny hand," And have you got what you wanted?"

Asami revealed one of her rare genuine smiles, which existed indeed as rare as they might be. The girl answered triumphantly with a certain sense of satisfaction," Yes, I think that I have successfully acquired a new set of lovely toys." Obviously, Asami omitted that her swords fell into the sharper category of child toys.

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	6. Arc I Chapter V

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter V**

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Asami stretched her still hurting sword arm. She should have known that she would get some kind of payback for her action, argh. You always had to pay for your stupid decisions one way or another, and, yes, she paid dearly.

Was her little sword scene even a good idea? In retrospect, Asami wasn't totally sure. She could already foresee how the people would still tell their grandchildren the tale about the spooky little demon Ojou-sama that scared the shit out of her three poor victims. And they would tell them how her spirit would devour the souls of unruly children that didn't go to sleep early.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Asami was gently stretching her right arm trying to relieve the numbing pain. Because it wasn't necessarily recommendable to suddenly channel massive amounts of Chakra through your untrained and weak muscles like she did.

Asami continued her hated stretching exercises. Ouch, muscle aches, the arch enemy of all people with a lack of physical activity. And especially, of frail girl like her.

Because the other option was something like running laps across the village to build up her stamina and strength, but Asami didn't have the necessary determination for such a long term project, not to say she was lazy. Instead, she should continue with her personal training regime and improved her Chakra control further to unleash her full potential. She had gigantic reserves, but you had to use effectively and efficiently too …

Asami moved her hands forwards in a yoga position and an unexpected spike of pain shot through her body. Ouch, ouch, endure, endure. After all, pain was educational …

"Asami-chan, what are you doing there?" Oka-san blinked with her curious eyes and stared bewildered at her precious daughter and her current position.

"Ah, nothing, nothing, Oka-san, I only had a few strange ideas", Asami answered with the sweetest smile in her arsenal. Oka-san was a rather easy target and was never able to resist her smiling attack.

Oka-san furrowed an eyebrow, but she accepted her explanation," Asami-chan, I have good news for you. I have finally found a potential shinobi instructor for you. She has volunteered for training you for the physical part and maybe even for the theoretical of the academy admission exam."

"Huh, really?" Asami titled her head.

"Yes, do you remember Hama and Shino, Asami-chan?"

"No, not really ", she didn't remember.

"Don't you remember her? She was the other woman present when you asked me if you could become a shinobi?"

"Ah, yes, the nice woman. Yes, yes, I remember. Why?" Asami still didn't remember. Who was Hama again?

"Well, she told me that her son was trained by a certain Kunoichi who was an old childhood friend of her. Therefore, I asked Hama a few days ago if she could contact her and arrange something. I met her today in the village and asked her if she could be also your sensei."

"And?"

Oka-san was happy, "In the end, she accepted. She will see you tomorrow afternoon here. And if you show the necessary determination and potential, the she might consider to teach you."

"Thank you, Oka-san", Asami jumped up and hugged her with all the force her tiny arms possessed without using any Chakra. After all, she didn't want to hug Oka-san to death.

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Kurano closed the door behind her slowly and sighed with a heavy heart. Since the day her daughter was born, the loving mother knew that there was more to Asami than met the eye. Kurano didn't understand how, but somehow she inherently knew from the very beginning that her daughter was destined for greatness, for so much more than everyone realised. Kurano loved her little princess above all else and she would give everything for her.

Wealth, position, fame, power, all was within her grasp and only waited to be claimed by her. It was Asami's destiny decreed by heaven itself. It was her fate that nobody could deny her, nobody could ever prevent her from achieving.

Asami would march forwards where she couldn't. Asami would achieve what she couldn't. Asami would become the Kunoichi that Kurano always dreamed to be but never was.

The moment Kurano looked the first time upon her daughter enveloped by the protective arms, she already knew this. The moment she stared into her eyes fascinated by her magnificent, wonderfully black eyes, she already knew this. Kurano lost herself in the comforting darkness of her eyes and it was an undisputable fact that Asami had them too.

Her daughter possessed the same omniscient and all-seeing eyes of her father. Both of them radiated strength and promised immense power, power beyond human comprehension.

But while her father appeared to be a usurper of a legacy that he wielded merely by fortunate circumstances, Asami was their true inheritor and master. These eyes didn't simply belong to her, no, they were an inseparable part of her existence and she was predestined to wield them.

And time had shown that these prophetic words were indeed true. Asami was by no means a normal girl, that much was plainly obvious to everyone. Asami was just … odd and Kurano wasn't certainly the only one who thought that. Asami was a lovely child and her smile beatific. Nevertheless, she was strange and her behaviour often peculiar to say the least. Regardless of what she said, Asami always did what she wanted. Unfortunately, Kurano couldn't deny her sweet treasure anything. Especially, when she was armed with a happy smile and exploited her weakness viciously.

Furthermore, Asami was exceptionally intelligent for her age, annoyingly intelligent, which didn't make things easier. Insidious and highly intelligent, that was a nasty combination for a girl with a lot of mischievous and criminal energy like her. Kurano had the feeling that Asami was constantly one step ahead of her and had always the uncanny tendency knew more than she realistically should as if she had somewhere a pond of secret knowledge.

One moment she was happy and cheerful. Especially, about comparatively silly things like, for example, her making origami. Kurano never understood why, but for some strange reason her daughter was always fascinated by her origami, not say she loved her the magnificence of something, so simple yet complex. The noble simplicity and quiet grandeur of paper, and geometry.

The next moment she seemed sad and depressed beneath the façade of her smiling face. Sometimes Asami seemed to be inexplicably lost in her thoughts, dispatched from reality and trapped in a pensive trance. Kurano recognized that deep within her heart Asami felt hollow. She smiled, but she was accompanied by a cold indifference. Life bored her and Asami wasn't really interested in the existence of anyone else. Except, for her. Her daughter loved her and every time they met her face visibly brightened up. She was her Oka-san and that made her happy.

What disturbed Kurano, however, was a part of Asami's personality that was buried deep within her soul. Kurano could only catch a short glimpse of said person during her emotional breakdown. Her daughter calmed her crying heart with her soft reassuring voice. She would never leave and would always stand by her side.

Unfortunately, a loving and doting Kurano didn't comprehend what paradoxical person Asami exactly was. In the end, Asami was brilliance that bordered next to insanity, unconditioned kindness and primal evil, empathy and calculating pragmatism in one.

A weapon of war that was ready to be unleash and bring destruction upon the world. A weapon that neither knew remorse nor mercy. A weapon that was eager to incinerate everyone and everything if necessary.

Kurano could have seen all this, but she didn't. Instead, Asami's gentle voice caressed her and her daughter embraced her tiny protective arms," Oka-san, I will never leave you. I will always stand at you side, even if the entire even if the entire world shall burn instead."

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Asami was occupied with a further morning session of callisthenics that weren't that morning, considering that it was already afternoon. But thanks to the fact that Asami tended to sleep relatively long, she could, technically speaking, still call them "morning".

Despite the fact that she didn't like callisthenics, damn exercises, she clearly conceded that they were indeed sometimes useful. Especially, if she didn't want a repetition of the muscle ache disaster like last time. Because her arm still hurt and she certainly wouldn't be defeated once again by a simple insignificant muscle ache, right?

And she never reached that far down. Asami bent forwards and touched her feet with her hand. She was surprisingly nimble and flexible. And she should integrate these features in her combat style. Fast and nimble. Fast and flexible ...

Suddenly, Asami's senses were triggered by an unknown Chakra signature. A relatively strong signature that was directly heading into her direction. Who was this? The woman got closer with every step and eventually she opened the door to her room.

Unidentified Chakra signature, clearly above average, shinobi. Unlikely to be a hostile intruder based on the apparent lack of stealth: Possibly her sensei based and 25 minutes late. Asami concluded her assessment in a blink of an eye. Nevertheless, she remained sceptical and gave her a suspicious look. Trust was good, paranoia was better.

While the Kunoichi stood there motionlessly and observed her curiously, very curiously, Asami maintained her clueless expression and analysed her figure for additional information. The woman wore a white sleeveless tunic over her red fishnet.

Her hair was a mixture of black and grey shades and was kept loose and had no specific style. And her eyes possessed a crimson tone… Stop, stop, stop. Seriously, what was up with these weird genetics and strange mutations here?

Plagued by her inner doubts, the Kunoichi wavered between a state of insecurity and anxiety. Her future sensei was visibly uncomfortable and a little bit nervous. Probably …

Before Asami could finish her deduction, however, her sensei broke the ice first, which surprised her. To be honest, she didn't expect her to be this bold.

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* * *

"Ehmm, what are you doing there?", Kurenai was slightly nervous. In her opinion, she wasn't that good of a good choice for being a sensei, not to say inadequate. There were better choices than her, right? She lacked experience, she was only a Chunin since a few months, and she wasn't that good with people. Nevertheless, Kurano chose her and trusted her with her precious little daughter and greatest treasure without a second thought.

Initially, she didn't even want to train Asami and intended to decline. But in the end, she didn't and accepted because her heart just couldn't reject such a kind hearted and loving mother like Kurano, Kurenai sighed frustrated by her constant lack of determination. She was way too often way too kind for her own good, wasn't she?

And to make things worse, Kurenai wasn't exactly sure how to handle someone like Asami. Apparently and according to her lovely mother, the girl veritable prodigy, a genius in the making.

Kurenai had already seen enough of these so called geniuses and she knew that only a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of these prodigies were the real deal and deserved their title.

Armed with a smile, Kurenai approached the girl and leaned down. So, what was she doing?

Oblivious to her own cuteness, Asami tilted her head, "Oh, I was only doing some stretching in advance to prepare myself for my upcoming lessons. By the way, are you my new sensei? If that is the case, then my name is Minami Asami and it is a pleasure to meet you, sensei."

The girl jumped up and inspected her with a set of marvelling eyes. That was unfair, how did she know that sweet children full of hope were her main weakness?

Kurenai smiled, "Yes, I am Yuhi Kurenai and I am indeed your new sensei. To be honest, I am really impressed. Normally, the majority of future shinobi don't show that much enthusiasm when it comes to training. As you will see, training and perseverance are integral parts of the shinobi life."

Kurenai finished wisely and Asami merely furrowed her tiny eyebrow. After all, she was her sensei now and she had to be a good example to the girl, right?

But Asami didn't seem to be particularly impressed and interrupted her with a short giggle," I suppose that is true to a certain extent, sensei. Training and perseverance are indeed fundamental, but I think that these traits are surely useful in many other areas of life too, and not exclusively in the world of shinobi, sensei."

In a certain way, Asami reminded Kurenai of the Hokage who was also prone to this kind of lectures. The problem was, however, that Asami was fucking 4-years-old and Kurenai had just been corrected by someone 4 times her junior. She was supposed to be the one with life experience here and not her.

"Anyway, what do you know about shinobi life in general, Asami-chan?" Kurenai carried on and didn't show her frustration.

After some short deliberation, Asami responded with words sharp like obsidian," Ehm, next to nothing. The only impression that I have got until now is that of an incompetent mass of foolish Chunin and Genin whose main productive activity consists of leisurely strolling through the village and fooling around the whole day. These "shinobi" are then deployed on so called missions with includes strange and mostly useless tasks like rescuing and recuperating feline and canine creatures for some old ladies and performing all other kinds of strange menial tasks like, for example, cleaning, gardening, cooking, etc., etc. To be honest, shinobi don't seem that different form your typical unskilled freelancer."

"That is a rather … interesting, not say … unfortunate view you have, Asami-chan", Kurenai hesitated. Ouch, that hurt. Especially, because the majority of her observations were true.

Kurenai tried to regain the initiative in their conversation, "Anyway, I assume that you have never received any formal shinobi training as you are not a clan child, right?"

Asami nodded.

"And I assume that you don't know what Chakra or a Jutsu is either, don't you, Asami-chan?"

The girl nodded again and confirmed her thoughts. Asami was blank slate and she probably had to completely start from scratch with her. The girl probably didn't even know how to hold a kunai properly, not to say she had never even seen one. Kurenai looked at Asami and as expected she was the epitome of the pampered Ojou-sama and dotted little princess. This wasn't going to be necessarily easy.

Kurenai sighed. She wasn't discouraged by this fact, but this meant that she had a lot of work to do," Apparently, I have to start from scratch with you. Therefore, I will teach you today the bare basics of the standard Konoha Taijutsu."

"Obviously, I can't be near you all the time and observe your progress. Therefore, I have brought you all the according scrolls with all the necessary katas.

And your job, Asami-chan, is to practice them in your free time. I can tell, how much you will get out of our session will entirely depend on you and how much time you are willing to invest in your training, while my primary duty will be to judge your progress the next we meet and offer you some advice if necessary,", Kurenai smiled friendly before starting her first lesson. Let's see, how much of a genius Asami really was.

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	7. Arc I Chapter VI

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter VI**

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Kurenai was a bitch. Yes, definitely a sadistic and scrupulous bitch, which was, however, quite innocuous considering the hellish training that Kurenai put her through over the last months. Was Kurenai trying to kill her, or what? Had these mentally impaired shinobi seriously never heard about down-scaling?

Because the woman was a merciless and inhumane slave driver hiding behind her always friendly smile. But she wasn't friendly. Instead, her drill sergeant Kurenai put her through the hardest training regime she had ever witnessed. One that consisted of brutal endurance and stamina exercises and a variety of sparring matches and targeting practices. To be fair, her training wasn't that horrible and Asami was largely exaggerating, but she was nevertheless weak little girl and Kurenai was drilling her to death. She didn't deserve this kind of treatment because she was for fuck's sake only 4-years-old girl.

She had to run miles and miles and miles and miles and sheer endless monotonic laps while carrying what felt like a 50 kg backpack on her tiny shoulders in order to build up a suitable foundation in the physical strength department. Stupid endurance, stupid foundation, stupid physical strength.

The rest of her training consisted of the more skill related aspects of the shinobi life. Like, for example, throwing shuriken and kunai and getting her ass kicked in their Taijutsu lessons. And Kurenai was lucky that she wasn't able to repay her kindness and take revenge on her. Really lucky.

Personally, Asami hated all the running the most and with the fervent passion. Nevertheless, even she had to grudgingly admit the practical usefulness of Kurenai's exercises. It wasn't unusual that other people praised her for "unbelievable" cuteness while squeezing her cheeks and cuddling her against her will, but Asami didn't share their sentiment because she didn't like being treated like a living doll. She might look like a doll, but she was no doll. She was a human being.

And her body was frail and could be considered rather, rather, rather petite, which was unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Thanks to the very strong Yin component in her Chakra, she would always stay short and weak. Fortunately, her lack of physical strength wasn't that decisive as long as she could rely on her Chakra. After all, everything could be solved with enough Chakra, even her weak punch and kicks. The kinetic energy is directly proportional to the mass of an object and to the square of its velocity, or u se as much Chakra as you can and they would hit hard. On the bright side, she was never as nimble as now.

The skill based portion of their sessions was where she shined, however. Throwing sharper kitchen knives and tiny metal stars wasn't much of a challenge for her and she was surprisingly good at using these "kunai" and "shuriken". She was certainly not a specialist, but she had talent.

Asami performed admirably considering that it was her first time and she exceeded Kurenai's expectations by a wide a margin judging by her incredulous look. Aided by her Chakra enhanced strength, her kunai continuously hit the bull's-eye. Once, twice, thrice, and so on. And the fact that she didn't miss a single time played an important role too.

As a consequence, Kurenai praised her for her really "prodigious", *cough* a lot of natural experience had absolutely nothing to do with it, nothing at all *cough*, kunai and shuriken skills and Asami smiled.

What she really hated the most, however, were these fucking katas. They were so horribly annoying aside from being a waste of time and energy. She hated these stupid showy movements so much that her mind rejected the style on a subconscious level. Therefore, she was currently fighting, or rather struggling her way through. Because the real crux was Konoha's Taijutsu itself. The style couldn't be described as atrocious per se, but rather as basic and well balanced. Nothing too fancy or frivolous. All in all, you could say that the esteemed First Hokage had done a solid job. But her final verdict was nevertheless that these katas were utter garbage.

The very essence of the Konoha standard was diametrically opposed to the principles of her personal fighting style. A style that was ingrained in her at an instinctual level. In summary, Konoha's Taijutsu revolved around a stable position from which you attacked and blocked your opponent's strikes while being supported by your footwork.

In her opinion, this kind of Taijutsu was suited for duels, well regulated 1 vs 1 situations, and relied way too much on an honourable opponent, which was obviously an utterly foolish and unreliable assumption. Because Asami surely wouldn't be such an honourable opponent and give anyone required time to perform them. After all, she wasn't stupid.

All of her "katas" had only one purpose, a single simple purpose that dictated their ultimate form. Her katas weren't meant to defend, to block, to attack. They were meant to kill and nothing else. In short, her "Taijutsu" was the complete opposite of his little, harmless and innocent Konoha brother.

Instead, her philosophy was never, never, never, never stay stationary for too long, be always on the move, always mobile, change always position. If you attack, then rapid movement was decisive. Strike hard and fast and never hope for a fair fight. Fight dirty and kick your opponent in the balls, both figuratively and literally.

As a consequence, she didn't feel all too comfortable with the formal and rigid nature of Konoha's Taijutsu, which she considered a subpar style. Too friendly, too polite, not effective enough.

Asami even complaint one day to Kurenai and stated that she doubted its practicability and usefulness on the actual battlefield except for senseless sparring matches. Your enemy didn't patiently wait for you until you were ready and took a combat stance. Ultimately however, Asami decided to put up with the damn Taijutsu and accept her fate with a sigh. No training was wasted regardless of how useless.

Anyway, the only question that still lingered in her mind was how Kurenai could regard this kind of gruesome torture as ordinary shinobi training. Although Kurenai repeatedly assured her that such an amount of training and practicing was perfectly normal for any aspiring Kunoichi, Asami didn't believe her one bit. She didn't buy her bullshit excuses because she knew that something was wrong here.

No normal child could and should survive her physical tests in one piece. Well, she obviously did, but only because she cheated heavily by using her Chakra to boost her endurance beyond what should be humanely possible. Asami wasn't insane and she would certainly not run the entire distance while being limited to her natural stamina reserves. Otherwise, she would be already dead by now.

The problem was, however, the more Asami displayed of her contradictory and non-existent fitness, the more Kurenai forced her to run. And the same was true for her kunai and shuriken part. After the first successful tests, the difficulty of her tasks skyrocketed. The last time, she was supposed to change the trajectory of ten fucking kunai mid-air by deflecting them with another kunai. Sure, sure,, easy, easy, not difficult at all.

Tell what you want, no normal child on earth should go through for this shit. So why did Kurenai pull all this crap on her? What was the entire point behind all this?

Either this legalised form of torture was indeed normal and this world had no idea about the negative effects of excessive physical training and the concept of child abuse.

Or Kurenai was scouting for new recruits for some sort of ultra-secret special forces, *cough* Anbu *cough*. Because that would explain why the woman was trying to kill her.

Or she was simply, let's say, extremely motivated to test her limits beyond what should be necessary.

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But Kurenai ignored these sentiments and was more focused on her positive aspects, namely her indisputable skill. Asami was talented, extremely talented.

Despite her constantly raising the bar, the girl passed most of her weekly evaluations with an apparent ease that was slightly discomforting and distressing.

She wielded a kunai as if she had years of experience on her tiny shoulders, which wasn't possible. She was an incomparable fast learner for her age group, always attentive and avidly listening. Moreover, it was evident that Asami was in possession of a frighteningly advanced Chakra control and impressive reserves despite her playing dumb every time she asked. Chakra? What is that? Can you eat it? Can I buy it somewhere?

But she didn't believe her little princess as Asami could have impossibly survived all of her running courses without using an ounce of Chakra. A certain idiot in green might be able to pull that off, but surely not Asami.

And then she began to teach her Taijutsu and that was the moment her little genius finally struggled.

Performance-wise, her moves were … improvable to say the least. Probably because she didn't particularly like Taijutsu and katas in general. Nevertheless, some parts katas were performed quite well. Especially, the strikes and punches.

Throughout their sparring matches, Kurenai noticed a certain pattern, a certain recognizable streak present in all of her moves. Asami was surprisingly vicious and insidious even for shinobi standards. The girl waited for the perfect moment to strike and if she struck, then she struck hard. In summary, Asami was not strong, but she was uncomfortable and annoying to fight.

Her main characteristic was a combination of speed and agility. Asami exceeded in these two categories and she typically attacked swiftly in a series of fast strikes aiming to break your defence with overwhelming power.

If she didn't succeed immediately, then she either shifted her axis of attack or simply disengaged. Asami retreated out of your striking range and prepared her next assault. The girl favoured the attack and all-out offence above all else. And that often left her exposed to any sort of counterattack which Kurenai clearly to her advantage.

Anyway, Asami was beyond a doubt a certified genius worthy of the title. Despite her shortcomings, it was highly likely that she would eventually become a great, if not a legendary Kunoichi with her immense potential. Perhaps she would even put Tsunade to shame.

Kurenai approached her defeated opponent. Asami way lying on the ground totally exhausted by one of their duels and mainly occupied with angrily cursing in a strange gibberish language.

Kurenai leaned down and told her with a straight smile, "Asami-chan, today I will teach you about Ninjutsu and useful Chakra developing techniques."

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Personally, Asami considered training with Kurenai a smile of fate. Especially, her forthcoming attitude concerning practically secret information about shinobi in general, their organization, their Jutsu, their history. In summary, all the information that wasn't that easy to come by as a mere civilian like her. And it probably helped that she was an ever eager student too.

Using her theories and Kurenai's helpful explanations, Asami was able to patch together a pretty accurate picture of Chakra.

Combined with her observations over the recent years and her empirical testing, she now had a rough idea what Chakra was, or rather what it wasn't. What Chakra could be utilised for, and what it shouldn't be utilised for.

Oka-san didn't particularly need to know where all the water of the pond in their garden suddenly evaporated to. Because that was certainly not the result of a Ninjutsu that gone out of control and that certainly didn't happen during one of Chakra experiments.

Chakra was a really straightforward substance. It was, normally, quite stable and in general easy to use. From a certain point of view, Chakra could be defined as an extension of your own will. Asami had noticed a few times already that her Chakra seemed to be partially linked to her emotional state, which was fascinating. When she was angry, then her Chakra was boiling. When she was happy, then her Chakra was full of energy. When she was sad, then it was lethargic. And when she was nervous, then it was enveloping her protectively like an armour.

Chakra was easily malleable. Shaping it into different forms was purely a question of skill. And the same was true for the elemental nature of your Chakra that could be changed with a bit of effort on her part. But why should she? Asami was quite happy with her elemental affinities. Apparently, she got fire and lightning. Two affinities that suited her perfectly, didn't they? Fire and lightning, Katon and Raiton, she really loved them because they were a part of her.

Furthermore, splitting Chakra up into its two main components proved to be simpler than originally expected.

Her Yin could be separated from her Yang almost and controlled too. But Chakra could be also rather unstable and tricky to handle. Especially, when you were playing around with its composition. Her experiment involved a friendly sphere of highly concentrated Yin, a massive crater where previously was a pond and a giant shockwave throwing her over the ground.

While she was the living incarnated epitome of massive, massive, massive Yin reserves to the extent that she feared to transform into a ghost, she lacked one necessary component for the production of Chakra, however, Yang. And that sucked immensely. She had enough Yin to drown the entire world, but no Yang and therefore no Chakra.

Asami didn't give up, however. If a certain girl and her Yin couldn't go to the mountain, then the mountain had to come to her. During one of the super-secret Chakra exercises that were taught to her by her esteemed sensei Kurenai, Asami discovered something interesting, or rather she had an idea.

While she was training her Chakra control at home in her garden with a rather useless leaf attached to her forehead, she theorized that the nature of Chakra couldn't be as monolithic as everyone proclaimed. And that fateful moment an idea was born.

It only required some subtle stimulation effort, which surely didn't consist of raw will and blunt coercion, on her part to gently persuade her Yin reservoirs of her planned endeavour. But in the end, Asami succeeded.

She tried to artificially create Chakra, or rather emulate the characteristics of Chakra with her own bastardised solely Yin based version of Chakra, and what she got was a small black orb surrounded by a beautiful corona of swirling amethyst coloured currents. What … was … this?

Orbiting around her orb, the waves slowly covered the black centre and turned the sphere completely purple. She had now a purple sphere that illuminated the entire area together with this mysterious Chakra. The purple Chakra shared all the basic traits with its less artificial brother, but this Chakra was nevertheless different. It was her Chakra and it was pure Yin.

While her natural Chakra was cam and balanced, this wonderful creation here was inherently aggressive and destructive. The violet light radiated a certain inner beauty and magnificence and Asami fell immediately in love with her new-born child. Her Chakra was so cute and sweet. How could her motherly instincts not react? Asami smiled and caressed her lovely Chakra.

She discovered this way that spiritual energy could under the right circumstances operate without its supposedly obligatory counterpart. Namely, Yin could under a high degree of concentration and pure coercion somehow naturally substitute the required Yang with whatever. Seriously, don't ask her. She may be the inventor, but she had no clue. The power of friendship? The power of love? The power of hatred? Well, Asami had no idea.

All in all, finally overcome this annoying dichotomy within her Chakra and that in the foreseeable future she should be capable of completely accessing her massive Yin reserves by converting them artificially into Chakra.

After her relatively successful experiment Asami had a tiny little problem, however, what should she do with her purple orb? She didn't how to dispel the sphere nor could she store it somewhere. Nevertheless, she had somehow to get rid of it.

Therefore, Asami threw her orb absent-mindedly into the nearby garden pond. Unfortunately, a certain careless girl realised too late that it was probably not a good idea to just throw around highly concentrated Chakra and was consequently punished by friendly fire.

Considering the amount of Chakra she used, the following cataclysmic detonation had to be expected. After being thrown through the air, Asami awakened again with some good classic mud in her mouth while Oka-san was desperately hugging her as if she was about to die. Her hands were wrapped around her in a protective manner and Oka-san almost squeezed her to death, but only almost. Asami came to the quick conclusion that the Chakra was evidently her child. Because going out in blaze of explosive glory was definitely her style _._

"Asami-chan, you have been drifting away again."

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* * *

"Asami-chan, we have arrived", Oka-san interrupted Asami's pensive trance and forced her to focus again on the boring reality around her.

Together with Oka-san, Kurenai and Samako, Asami was standing in front of the academy gate and noticed that red seemed to be the overall theme colour of this rotting shithole, or rather of this venerable old building.

Kurenai and Samako accompanying me for inexplicable and nonsensical reasons.

Her sensei said it was a part of her duty to see one of her best students off, while Samako told her proudly that she had to be present at the historical moment when her Ojou-sama took her first step towards her goal of world conquest. Obviously, she didn't remark further on her comment and could only respond with a sigh.

Anyway, today would be the day of the much awaited glorious and spectacular academy admission exams. Well, not really. Just a few brats beating each other up.

"Asami-chan, don't be nervous and promise me that you will give your best", Oka-san cheered her up and wished her good luck even though it was completely unnecessary.

Shouldn't Oka-san know that she didn't rely on such silly things like luck? Nevertheless, her gesture was appreciated and a certain girl smiled.

Afterwards, Asami entered the crowed schoolyard that filled by other hopeful children, their parents, their relatives, and other humans. Meh, humans.

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	8. Arc I Chapter VII

**I**

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 **Arc I Chapter VII**

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Oka-san hugged her daughter for one last time. After giving her a final encouraging kiss, Asami passed through the academy gate. The girl crossed the yard unperturbed as always and with a big happy smile. After all, what did she have to fear? Exactly, nothing and no one. Instead, Asami did what any sane person would have done, or rather what she assumed that any sane person would have done. The girl scanned the present crowd for "interesting" individuals with "interesting amounts" of Chakra, and there were plenty of them. Her sensor abilities were rather helpful in that regard and she spotted her targets therefore reliably.

Asami ignored useless activities like engaging other children in conversation because it was rather unproductive and a genuinely terrible idea in general. Sure, she could join them, but the mental age gap was simply too big. The truth was that Asami was completely incompatible with normal children. She didn't, she couldn't understand them, and they didn't understand her aside from making for horrible conversationalists.

She may not be the most patient person under the sun and not the paragon of a social person, but being in their presence for a prolonged amount of time was a mental agony.

As a consequence, Asami had always to prevent herself from bumping her head against the nearest solid object when Oka-san tried to encourage her to play with some of the other children in the neighbourhood. Asami was supposed to join Hidetor, Katzumi, Atasuke, Ayumi, Misaki and their little games. Fortunately, Oka-san quickly recognized the futility of her efforts and gave up. Asami didn't like them and they didn't like her, or rather they constantly avoided her as her eyes were apparently extremely "scary" and made them always feel "uneasy" in her presence. The latter part slightly hurt and Asami knew when she wasn't welcome.

Asami scouted the crowd for other participants. Especially, for potentially dangerous participants, albeit she doubted that they really existed. Because which of these children could realistically beat her? Exactly, nobody.

She assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the assembled candidates and came to the conclusion that they didn't represent a significant threat.

Like, for example, the girl with the blue bob haircut and the white eyes, *shiver* creepy Hyuga *shiver*, was the epitome of pure shyness. Hiding herself within her jacket, the pitiful girl avoided her gaze the second their eyes met. Asami shook her head. What a poor girl. She was weak, meak, and had practically no self-esteem. Asami almost felt sorry for her and really wanted to hug her to protect her. But that was a bit too much.

And apparently, there were also some family issues involved. Because that would explain why her guardian dog of an older brother glared at his little sister with pure hatred and contempt while her father did absolutely nothing to prevent him.

On the other side, there was a trio of children accompanied by their parents who apparently knew each other. A red haired Akimichi, blondie and scar face were talking with each other while a boy with his ponytail looked slightly bored, a blonde girl not really interested, and a third boy deeply unsecure.

Asami stopped her walk and smiled. In the vicinity of the tree, she felt a rather familiar Chakra, this immense and primordial raw force. Regardless of where she was, she could always feel this pulsating Chakra lurking in the background and the signature was difficult to overlook. Therefore, the giant ball of concentrated energy had already piqued her interest since the last half hour.

Asami approached the source of origin and curious who or what exactly produced this potent presence. Was it a veteran shinobi, or perhaps the Hokage himself? Asami was, however, disappointed the moment she saw him her lips fell downwards. A lonely blonde boy was sitting on a swing and grimacing challenging at everyone nearby.

Seriously, that was the source? The strongest Chakra she had ever felt belonged to a stupid brat around her age that she could defeat with a single pinkie finger in her sleep.

So much wasted potential, so much unused power was lying dormant in the boy and what did he? Absolutely nothing. Asami was disgusted and left the boy alone. He wasn't worth her attention. He was useless. Nevertheless, she noticed that the boy was actively isolated by the surrounding crowd. Nobody even dared to get close to him and she was personally wondering why. Was he some kind of untouchable existence, or what?

In general, the mood was relatively good, however, and everyone appeared to be quite excited.

But suddenly, something caught her hard earned attention, or rather she caught someone's attention. Out of the corner of her sharp eyes, Asami registered that someone was watching her. Asami giggled and turned her head. So, who was her secret admirer? Her swift motion surprised her observer and it turned out that it was black haired boy a few years older than her and probably a freshly promoted Genin.

Asami and the stranger were both staring at each other. Her black shaded irises met his black eyes and neither of them averted their gaze. They were both inspecting, analysing and observing each other while waiting for who blinked first in this ongoing staring contest. But nothing happened and Asami was only greeted by a face carved out of granite. The boy was good. He stood his ground and didn't budge. The girl narrowed her eyes. This was going to be a difficult match.

Asami examined the rest of his family. Next to him stood his little brother and his father, and all three of them wore a stylised fan on their clothes. So, they were all from the infamous Uchiha clan, which seemed plausible considering that the trio had the Uchiha's characteristic black hair and their onyx eyes.

Eventually, the bell rang and their little staring contest ended with an indecisive draw. The admission had begun and the academy doors were opened. Asami gave the boy a little parting gift, however. Armed with her suavest smile, the girl politely waved goodbye. And as expected, her opponent blinked, albeit briefly. Nevertheless, he blinked and for a fraction of a second her mysterious Uchiha visibly gaped. Mission accomplished, she had officially reached her secondary objective for this day, namely teasing an Uchiha successfully.

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* * *

In front of the academy, a single boy was waiting on his brother to take him home. He was irritated and a bit furious, but he had a good reason. Sasuke didn't like or dislike Asami immediately. To be honest, he was even envious of her to a certain extent.

The Uchiha boy trained day and night for this particular day. Everything in order to make his big brother proud of his achievements by demonstrating his skills during the admission exams. He always wanted to be like his incredible brother, the ever perfect Itachi.

Therefore, Sasuke aimed for being best of the class from the very beginning, and impress Itachi. The problem was, however, that a certain girl was so much better than him and robbed him of this opportunity. He was now in the very strange situation of being the best and not being the best, both at the same time. How was that possible?

Well, it all started with the theoretical portion of the evaluation. He sat down and together with everyone else he patiently waited like for their examiners. And then she appeared. As one of the last, the girl stepped into the room. Asami was neither bothered by the upcoming exam nor visibly excited as if her victory was already written in the stars.

That was nothing special or extraordinary per se because there were a lot of people like her that were convinced by their own superiority. However, the girl was different. Asami somehow commanded respect with her presence alone. And Sasuke didn't particularly care and largely ignored the fact that there was a certain undeniable elegance, or rather haughtiness in every step of her. To some degree, Asami reminded him of his mother Mikoto, or rather of a younger version of her. But deep down, Sasuke had to admit that she was … pretty.

Her smirk, however, betrayed her real feelings. The girl was clearly aware of the general impression she had on her surroundings and that she deliberately used her sublime appearance. And she greatly enjoyed her staged grand entrance and playing princess, that much was obvious.

The little princess was clad in a rather expensive red silk dress decorated by an extensive pattern of brocade like silver and gold, which further promoted her holier than thou appearance. Sasuke rolled his Uchiha eyes. The girl didn't have to show off that much and she should focus more on her tasks of a Kunoichi instead of her appearance. Sasuke nodded and he certainly didn't try to catch a further glimpse of her.

Because her clothes were atypical for a Kunoichi, to say the least. No normal shinobi would choose to wear such an impractical attire offering almost no protection at all, not forgetting the pure financial standpoint. Her dress was border line… No, it was definitely decadent by all standards. Asami approached her seat in a regal manner while more and more gazes were fixed on her.

But in the end it didn't matter, she was one of many and Sasuke was focused on something more important. Therefore, the young Uchiha mostly ignored the growing commotion around their newcomer. Fortunately, the examiners entered the room soon afterwards and all the whispering finally died down.

The following written test itself wasn't a real challenge, at least not for Sasuke. The questions were relatively easy and you had to actively tank the exam to score badly.

After all, the written exam was more of a formality anyway and had the purpose of merely determining the academic level of the future students. Because Sasuke doubted that their results were actually even relevant. As long as your practical results reached the required minimum, you should pass regardless of your theoretical score.

Nevertheless, he faithfully filled out his questions and finished up quickly. He deposited his sheet on the examiner's desk and moved quickly to the indicated training field.

Together with a few others, Sasuke prepared himself there for the upcoming exam by investing his additional time in a series of warm up practices. The candidates were divided into groups consisting of six and were pitted against each other in various competitions. Only the best of each group would then advance then into the next stage, the elimination round where they would fight against each other to demonstrate their various skills and techniques.

All in all, it was a nice miniature tourney to test their abilities. Sasuke clearly fought his way through the brackets, otherwise his Uchiha ancestors would have spun themselves in their graves and haunted him until the end of his life. He encountered no serious opposition on his march to victory and he was even cheered by some of his new female supporters.

In the end, only your typical clan children and other proficient or fortunate individuals survived while the majority of the candidates were condemned to the undesirable side lines.

Interestingly, the little wannabe princess was among these remaining few and she showed to Sasuke's confusion no outward signs of fatigue. And what was even more concerning, you couldn't even recognize a single scratch on Asami as if she was invulnerable to any form of attack. Slightly exhausted after a particularly taxing sparring match, the Uchiha was wondering how that was exactly possible.

As a matter of fact, Sasuke knew that Asami wasn't bad. He coincidentally got a view on one of her kunai series and finally picked up the princess's full name when the instructor called her forwards. To his surprise, Sasuke noticed that Asami's kunai skills were good, not to say exceeding everyone present including him by a ludicrous amount. She threw her kunai and shuriken with an unprecedented precision and accuracy that her opponents couldn't hope to match in a thousand years.

But it didn't stop there. Instead, it only got worse. Because Sasuke discovered while further advancing that the sparring sessions were even more one-sided and that she massacred her enemies.

While the girls on the stances were call her by her nickname the "princess" that way and were cheering at her ever growing series of victories, Asami easily cleaned the floor with pretty much everyone who had the courage, rather who was stupid enough, to face her on the open field. If you drew her name, then you were in for a beating, which was kind of depressing. You didn't stand the slightest chance against her. Asami simply destroyed you and your pride with merciless and humourless efficiency.

The girl was indeed invulnerable from a certain perspective, but not the way you might expect. The issue wasn't an impregnable and unbreakable defence that blocked all of your attacks. No, the primary problem was to even hit her. None of her challengers landed a single hit yet.

During most of the fights, albeit it was disputable if they could even be defined as such because the word fight normally suggests two participants and the possibility to win, she solely evaded all of your attacks, kicks, punches and everything else. Carrying her normal bored and non-committed expression, Asami danced around you until you grew tired and were out of breath and demonstrated that she didn't even need to lifting finger to defeat you. She didn't need to do anything in fact, it wasn't necessary. Because the one who actually beat you were yourself and not her.

Asami moved only in for the coup de grace if the entire process you took her a bit long or you presented her with a blatant opportunity that earned you a swift and painless death.

Therefore, it would have been fun to watch her matches. Because say what you want, her way of thrashing anyone was simply awesome unless you were like Sasuke the next in her ever increasing line of poor victims, which wasn't funny.

Despite his foreseeable defeat and the overall grim tactical situation, Sasuke was nevertheless high-spirited and eager to challenge her supremacy.

Asami stood for all the things he wanted to overcome deep down in his heart. The girl somehow reminded him of his brother Itachi. No, she was temporarily Itachi in his eyes. Asami was admittedly a smaller female version of him, but nonetheless she was one. Her calculating eyes, her pose, her pitch black hair colour, her behaviour, her confidence, everything was the same, or rather the Uchiha was persuading himself of that. Asami, Itachi, Asami, Itachi, Asami, Itachi, Asachi, Itsami.

For the sake of the comparison that he was making, Sasuke ignored the fact, however, that there existed a series of rather obvious differences between his beloved brother and the girl named Asami.

But for him, the simulacrum of Itachi in front of him was seemingly perfection too, an irresistible force of nature that inspired awe and magnificence in you.

If he wasn't even capable of defeating this particular girl who a stepping stone to his grand goal, then how could he ever hope to surpass his brother. The answer was never. Therefore, he had to be victorious here. He had to defeat her.

The stupidly brave Uchiha stood his ground and marched determined forwards into the jaws of hell. Mobilising all of his available bravado, Sasuke entered the duel circle. The stage was set.

When the examiner signalled the start, the boy spoke the following words which were more meant as a form encouragement to himself rather than an act of unwavering defiance against his current opponent, "I will beat you and don't think I don't stand a chance." His words had no effect on her besides eliciting an annoyed look together with a furrowed eyebrow.

The girl gave him a glare hat promised him a slow painful death. Ignoring the slightly frightening Asami, Sasuke supposed that this was only part her intimidation tactics. He hoped so at least because he was neither interested in dying painfully nor slowly.

Asami smiled, "My friend, do you know how many times today I have already heard something similar with little variation? Can you not be a bit more creative with your battle cries? And how many of them have succeeded so far? Exactly, not a single one. Therefore, don't waste my time and bring it on."

Sasuke mentally gulped when the opposing girl made an inviting hand gesture and showed him one of the most dismissive smirks ever seen, "If you want to win, then come, my friend. Because I am waiting."

He knew that he should have ignored her provocation, but he charged nevertheless, which was an utterly foolish decision against an adversary of her calibre as he was about to find out very soon. Like in all the matches before, the girl flawlessly sidestepped and his attacks missed.

Only his long honed reflexes saved him from her fast counterattack. A sudden punch aimed for his head. He easily blocked the attack by moving his arms upwards. Sasuke realised too late that her punch was only a feint and he left his abdominal region exposed. The follow up side kick was directly aimed into his guts and would have almost got him. Hadn't he performed one of the fastest rolls backwards of his entire life, the match would have been over.

But Sasuke was saved by his instincts, by his natural instincts that were far older and more ancient in origin than the ignorant boy could imagine. Thanks to them the Uchiha was able to narrowly dodge fate and escape Asami's scythe like attack unscathed.

Sasuke quickly got back up from the ground and took a defensive position because being momentarily distracted was a deathly sin against such a dangerous enemy like Asami.

What he saw, however, confused him greatly. The girl named Asami giggled, "That was indeed unexpected, to say the least. Based on my evaluation of your abilities, my attack should have succeeded, yet it didn't. Apparently, I have slightly underestimated the Uchiha in you."

Asami smirked," But I have to praise you, because you aren't actually that bad, skill-wise. Continue your training and you might even stand a chance against me one day, or rather in a few millennia if you are lucky."

After a short pause, Asami raised her hand and announced with a big smile, "Playtime is up, I have had enough fun for today. Therefore, I forfeit now. So, bye bye." Completely ignoring the confused Uchiha boy and the stunned audience, the girl turned around and tripped happily away. What was that? She disappeared, she simply disappeared and didn't care neither about him nor any idea of sportsmanship in the slightest. Sasuke felt rightly cheated. You couldn't do that. You couldn't simply walk away from a competition because you felt bored, right?

Their match was over. He had won, but it didn't taste at all like the sweet victory he had hoped for. Asami let him win instead and it was clear to everyone that she chose to not claim her victory that was within her grasp.

Sasuke cursed. Asami and Itachi were really both alike. Even in defeat they still managed to emerge victorious in the end.

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The boy attacked head on, but Asami counterattacked with three successive punches and she didn't miss," The next, please."

 **.**

From an outsider's perspective, Asami appeared to be heavily focused on her current tasks, which couldn't be further from the truth, however. In fact, Asami was bored, immensely bored.

Throwing a few kunai and shuriken at some targets was easy and didn't bring any form of joy or sense of special fulfilment. Especially, if only anincompetent idiot couldn't hit them properly.

Evading strikes that she could see coming from light-years away wasn't worth being called a challenge at all. All their attacks were so slow, so painfully slow.

And the evasion part was mainly due to the fact that she didn't want her new bought clothes to be damaged because pleasing designs were difficult to come by. After all, Asami quite liked the intrinsic golden and silver chrysanthemum pattern and didn't want it to be damaged.

And yes, she knew that it was a rather stupid decision to wear this kind of clothes during an admission exam, but she didn't care. What could potentially happen against such harmless peasants anyway?

 **.**

Asami avoided the incoming strike and responded with a swift chest kick," The next, please."

 **.**

Nevertheless, the entire exam offered a few funny moments too. For example, Asami enjoyed the kunai and shuriken test as the target range gave her the ample opportunity to show off a bit.

The sparring matches were also enjoyable, at the beginning at least. Her blood was always boiling in anticipation of a good fight. The rush of adrenaline and emotions was addictive and outright exhilarating. But her foolish hopes turned quickly to dust, and dust turned into outright hatred. Asami hated these sparring matches and hoped that they would finally end.

So, why was she still here? Why did she still fight? And why did they make her write a test whose intrinsic difficulty insulted her very intelligence? Well, she wasn't completely sure.

 **.**

Another boy entered the circle and gave up immediately," The next, please." Shouldn't they slowly have run out of people?

 **.**

Following the bad joke of a group phase, she was now here and was fighting against opponents that were rather trying to prevent themselves from stumbling over their own feet rather than to actually hurt her. If she met Kurenai ever again, then she would certainly have a little talk with her. Because Asami was sure that the majority of these future shinobi here would require some of Kurenai's recommended "basic" training.

The sparring matches, or rather the one-sided massacres had therefore lost all of their original. Because unfortunately, there wasn't a single person that could give me a run for her money. Her opponents were all so predictably weak and innocuous that fighting them was more comparable to stealing candy from a baby. In short, it felt morally wrong to beat them up.

 **.**

Asami tripped her current opponent with her right leg and struck him with her elbow from above," The next, please."

 **.**

Even the sadist in her was forced to admit that beating the shit out of little children and terrorizing them was only entertaining for a limited amount of time.

Like much else in life, the sparring matches had started out as a comedy and then transformed over the time into a tragedy, only to turn back into comedy a few seconds later. At the beginning, it was funny to test her opponent's abilities, to play with them, to taunt them, etc. But now …

 **.**

Asami sighed and rammed her knee into her opponent's stomach. The poor didn't take the hit too well and was knocked out immediately," The next, please."

 **.**

And they even used these stupid Hollywood lines. Declarations ranging from the dramatic "I will stop you" to the final "Your resistance is futile" were thrown at her while she was supported by a cheering crowd. Apparently, she had picked up at some point of time the moniker "princess" _,_ which wasn't too surprising considering the circumstances. And Asami really liked the name because she had to admit that Asami-hime had an undeniably nice touch. Asami-hime, Asami-hime, Asami-hime.

 **.**

Sunk in her private thoughts, Asami stepped aside and avoided a series of punches. One, two, five, eight, twelve. Ultimately, the girl had enough and answered with her heel and a classical kick," The next, please." An Uchiha stepped forward and confronted her with a stern face. It was the little brother from before. Hopefully, she now had finally a somewhat worthy opponent.

 **.**

Whatever, the main reason that she was still here and hadn't prematurely left these bothersome examinations ages ago was power. Power? Yes, power. The main driving force behind her current actions was her pursuit of power, her will to power. Therefore, she had to enter the academy. And because she some punching bags and a few testing dummies for stress relieve. However, why was she so obsessed with power?

The answer is that this world sucked without power. Seriously, there was no better description. This world was a horrible place to live in if you didn't have any power. This was a world full of danger and incalculable risks. A world full of basically authoritarian military dictatorships interwoven with a system of feudal states and Daimyos. Great, just great.

This world was a triste place where only the strong reigned supreme and the weak suffered more than everyone else. Therefore, power was high up on her immediate priority list …

 _"We have a problem."_

A problem?

 _"Yes, a problem."_

Hmm, can that wait until later because I am currently telling a story? So I don't have that much time…

 _"Nope."_

Really?

 _"Yes."_

Really? Really?

.

.

.

 _"You know that I can play this game too. But to return to the topic, my answer is still yes."_

Asami sighed. Okay, okay. What's the problem, mind?

 _"I missed."_

Ehm, what? Say again.

 _"I missed. Contrary to expectations, the kick didn't connect."_

Are you sure, mind?

 _"Affirmative, target missed."_

Really? And how?

 _"Negative, no idea. Don't ask me."_

Hmmm, whatever, give me a moment and then I will take over, understood?

 _"Copy."_

Asami focused her attention on her surroundings and consciously realised that her kick had indeed missed the target. Instead of ramming her shin into his guts, she hit nothing. The surprise was written all over her face and Asami was unable to comprehend what had happened. She missed, she missed, she truly missed … Apparently, a certain Uchiha had a modicum of skill and in her eyes he had earned a little reward for his accomplishment.

Asami raised her hand and smiled sweetly, "Playtime is up, I think I have had enough fun for today. Therefore, I forfeit now. So, bye bye." The girl disappeared and quickly walked home because Oka-san promised her she would cook something delicious today and her cooking was definitely not the worst, miam miam. She was hungry and forfeiting was therefore a rather easy decision. All in all, she didn't particularly about the first place anyway and getting something to eat was way, way, way, way more important.

A week later, Asami received her official admission letter that contained all the typical official bla bla bla that you would normally expect from this kind of documents.

Long story short, she entered the academy and was placed as anticipated in one of the more privileged classes with all the students with real potential.

The rest of the children were either sorted into the civilian non-shinobi classes or one of the many low quality shinobi classes. Both institutions had a reasonably horrible reputation and couldn't be considered the prime example of free public education as they only had limited financial resources at their disposal. In practice, this meant that the vast majority of Konoha's shinobi received a poor or no education at all.

And in the years to come, Asami should detect an interesting correlation between possessing the right lineage and being placed in the more prominent classes. But Konoha's wide-spread and omnipresent clan clientelism and cronyism were another story for another time.

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* * *

"Sasuke, tell me why are you in so a bad mood? You haven't even touched your food and you are so silent today. Did something happen at the examinations?" Mikoto looked concerned at her son while the entire family was currently sitting around the dinner table.

Sasuke interiorly deliberated whether he should be honest, or not? Yes or no? Yes or no? Eventually, the yes won, "Yes, you are right, Oka-san, something happened at the examinations. I am angry. Angry, because, because, ehmmm."

"Did some of the other candidates bully because you are an Uchiha. Don't bother with these idiots, Sasuke, ignore them. Be proud of who you are and your lineage..." his mother was about to start one of her feared infinite monologues when Sasuke interrupted her just in time. That was close.

"No, no, it wasn't something like that. I am angry because I was beaten in the final match by a girl."

"A girl?" Mikoto blinked as as well as Itachi who suspected to know who this mysterious girl was. No, no, it wasn't her, was it?

His father looked up from his newspaper and spoke in a serious tone. Fugaku was strongly disappointed by his son, "So, you lied to me then when you told me you had won all of your matches?"

"No, no, I won, but she could have easily beaten me if she wanted", an apologetic Sasuke looked at the ground.

"And how did you win then?".

"Well, she withdrew in the last round after she had played enough with me, this female mini copy of Itachi", Sasuke was sulking and mumbled annoyed tone.

Everyone's eyebrows shot up and Fugaku was curious now, "Female mini copy?"

"Yes, because she looks like a smaller version of Nii-san and also fought like him. Always seemingly perfect, always a step ahead of you, and always better than you in everything, aargh", Sasuke crossed his arms stubbornly.

His father asked a final question. He was interested in this girl be who was apparently so much better than his son. Despite the fact that Fugaku regarded Sasuke as the less talented one the two brothers, he was still an pureblood Uchiha and primarily someone who could never be defeated by a normal girl, "Do you happen to know her name?"

"Her name? Her name? Hmmm, I think her name was Minami Asami", Sasuke scratched his head.

"Hmmm, Minami, Minami, Minami, Minami", Fugaku repeated her surname again and again as his mind tried to remember something important. The Uchiha had the uncanny feeling that he knew this particular name from somewhere. But in the end, the patriarch quickly gave up and dedicated himself again to his newspaper. After all, it couldn't be that important.

The next day Fugaku visited a former good friend of him who was also famous womanizer in the past. He talked with him about the old times and a rather specific love adventure his fellow Uchiha had during his younger years.

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	9. Arc II Chapter I

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter I**

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* * *

It was raining and water covered the wet and muddy ground. The rest of Konohagakure was enveloped by a floating veil of fog hiding the sky and the stars, and sometimes a lighting broke through the thick wall of clouds and enlightened the night with its brilliance.

Surrounded by the forces of nature, a group of men walked along the street directly towards Konoha. The three men were covered in heavy trench coats, but even that didn't protect them from being completely soaked wet. Especially, to the dismay of one of them.

"Man, I hate rain, I really hate rain. Have I ever said that, Ibuki?" the shinobi grumbled.

"Yes, Akihiro, you are already complaining since 4 hours, 27 minutes and 7 seconds, and I admittedly stopped counting after the 45th time", Ibuki gave him an annoyed look.

"That was a rhetorical question, you genius", Akihiro countered.

"Silence, both of you, or are you idiots both trying to blow our cover? Konoha is just ahead and you have seriously nothing better to do than arguing", their Captain gave the two ANBU an angry glare. They were good friends, but enough was enough.

Ibuki was sceptical," Hagane, I think you are exaggerating. This was just a friendly conversation between friends and I honestly doubt that Konoha can get us, not at least this time.

As far as I know, Konoha's security forces are at the moment quite understaffed after losing their entire military police in just a single night. The Uchiha are dead and it is unlikely that they were able to replace them all in just three weeks. But we should be nevertheless careful. Because Kumo doesn't need another horrible Hyuga disaster. The first time was clearly enough."

Akihiro agreed," Yes, I remember. That mission was a total disaster and we were really lucky that nothing happened aside from just causing a complete diplomatic breakdown. Hagane, do you know which idiot was responsible for ordering that stupid mission?"

Hagane smirked, "Akihiro, that is top secret information and well above my paygrade. I don't have the necessary clearance for this kind of things. But you are right, I am wondering too who the idiot was that had the brilliant idea to not only try an abduction during the peace negotiations, but also send that idiot for such a delicate mission. In the end, I think that it is possible that the official version is even true and he acted really on his own and without any direct orders."

"Whatever, I warn you again, Ibuki, Akihiro, this time total failure isn't an option. Under no circumstances, we can allow Kumo's involvement in this operation to be revealed. And I hope you know what that means, plausible deniability will be crucial. And we have to be prepared to tie up the loose ends this time, understood?"

Akihiro and Ibuki merely nodded.

Hagane continued," Therefore, Kumo has sent us, professionals, and not some bloody amateur. Anyway, we will meet up with our informant and he will provide us with the necessary intel for this operation. According to my information, he had found out something very interesting that should help us."

"So, we still have a spy among the Hyuga clan, Hagane?" Akihiro furrowed his eyebrow.

"No, no, not the Hyuga spy. That one was recalled already a few years ago after being nearly compromised. No, Akihiro, we are here to get our hands on one of Konoha's great Dojutsu, but how many famous Dojutsu does Konoha have?" Hagane waited until both of them finally realised," Exactly, two. Our contact is apparently from another separated branch responsible for getting a Sharingan, but that is clearly quite complicated these days and after what had happened a few weeks ago. After all, who could have expected that the Uchiha clan would be wiped from one day to another, and just by a single man. Nevertheless, it seems that this Itachi didn't get all of them."

Ibuki was curious," What do you mean?"

Hagane smiled, "Apparently, he didn't kill all of them and missed two. Two Uchiha are still alive, his little brother, and a girl."

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* * *

"So, we basically have two options. The first option is …", Akihiro explained, but he was interrupted by his best friend, as usual.

Ibuki corrected him, "Three options, we have three options, Akihiro."

Akihiro gave his friend a slightly annoyed look, "Yes, Ibuki, you are right, we have three options. But I don't think that we can consider fighting a few squads of ANBU a viable option. Because if we want to get our hands on the boy, then we have to get first through them and as far as we can tell they are protecting our little Uchiha 24 hours a day."

Hagane contemplated, "Any move against the Uchiha would be indeed extremely difficult, if not outright suicidal. As expected, the boy is well guarded. After all, he is the last Sharingan user Konoha has and an important asset to the village. But I didn't expect that Konoha would dispatch whole squads just to guard him. "

"Fortunately, we don't have to go for the boy and still have a second option. The question is only whether we should take the gamble or cancel the entire operation and return back to Kumo."

Ibuki shared his opinion, "The girl is practically undefended and we shouldn't encounter any form of organized resistance. In short, nothing short of really bad luck should be able to stop us. Like you said, the main question is, however, whether she is the real deal or not. Can we rely on the intel that our contact has given us, Hagane?"

"And even if she is an Uchiha, Hagane, then it isn't sure whether she is really capable of awakening the Sharingan. In my opinion, both is highly questionable and we are just relying on our luck in this case."

Hagane summarized, "So, it would be a low risk and improbable high reward scenario."

"I would say that calling it improbable is a bit of a grave understatement, Hagane", Ibuki narrowed his eyes, "Because I don't think that overhearing some random stranger saying something can be considered a certified source of information these days. Especially, if said stranger was a former Uchiha shinobi that had not only fallen into alcoholism after being heavily wounded on a mission, but also a well-known and notorious liar. Therefore, can we really trust this man to tell the truth? Is the girl, is this Asami really his daughter, or was our drunken friend just lying as usual? I think that the latter is the case."

Akihiro intervened, "Ibuki, Hagane, perhaps we are looking at this from the wrong perspective? We are focused too much on what we could gain instead of thinking of what we would lose. "

"What do you mean, Akihiro?"

"You see, Ibuki, the mission has a relatively low risk profile and failure is generally unlikely. So, if the risk of failing is negligible, then it doesn't matter in the end whether we achieve our objectives or not. In the best case scenario, we can potentially an Uchiha girl with a pair of Sharingan nobody knows about. In the worst case scenario, we can just kill her and be done with it.

In summary, we can only gain something and will practically lose nothing. So, why are you so pessimistic, Ibuki?"

Ibuki fell silent and eventually nodded. He gave up his resistance and finally agreed," Nevertheless, we still have another little problem, Akihiro."

Akihiro furrowed his eyebrow," And that would be?"

Ibuki continued," Akihiro, you shouldn't forget the fundamental fact that getting an Uchiha doesn't automatically mean getting the Sharingan. As you might know, not every Uchiha is able to awaken the Sharingan. But without these eyes, the girl is essentially completely worthless. So, how do we find out if she can even use them?"

"Gentlemen, I think I have a possible solution for our problem. Have you perhaps ever heard curse of hatred, Akihiro, Ibuki?" Hagane had something in mind and smiled.

"No, not really", Akihiro and Ibuki exchanged looks and both replied in unison.

Hagane explained,"Well, to be fair, me too. Over the years, I have only heard some rumours here and there, but that is beside the point. What I know, however, is one of the more practical and possible applications of the so-called curse of hatred. Apparently, the Sharingan tends to be awakened and evolve when the user suffers from an emotional stress or trauma."

"So, we just need to expose her to immense emotional stress to get a confirmation?" Akihiro was sceptical.

Hagane turned his head," Yes, exactly."

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* * *

"Why does it always have to rain during our missions?" Akihiro grumbled beneath his heavy coat.

"Always? Not really, that is just an assumption on your part, Akihiro. As far as I can remember, we had plenty of missions on which it didn't rain", Ibuki commented amused by his friend's antics.

"That is true", Akihiro extended his hand to catch a few raindrops. They were heavy and it didn't seem that rain would stop soon.

"Is everyone ready then, Akihiro, Ibuki?" Hagane looked around and waited for their final confirmation.

"Don't forget, we get quickly in and out, no needless interruptions or diversions. After all, our time is limited and I want to get out of Konoha as fast as humanely possible afterwards. Secure both targets and eliminate everyone else. Afterwards, we will proceed with the second stage of our plan, understood?" their Captain smiled at both Akihiro as well as Ibuki. They were his team, his friends, and together they had already survived impossible odds. This was, however, just a normal mission and he doubted that this abduction would be a complicated affair.

Covered by the pitch black night, the fateful trio moved out.

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* * *

Using the darkness of the night to avoid any potential patrols, the trio headed for the designated location. Ultimately, they arrived at the mansion that cloaked by the heavy rain.

Overcoming the exterior stone wall could be hardly called a real challenge and the infiltrators entered the garden. The mansion was still quiet and the lights were off. Gving a sign, Hagane signalled the start of the mission. From here on no return was possible, what expected them now was either success or failure.

Ibuki and Akihiro merely nodded in silence and dispersed immediately rushing towards their assigned objectives. Ibuki was tasked with the bedroom and securing her mother that was necessary for the second stage, while Hagane paid a friendly visit to the rest of the mansion and had the honour to plant a few combustion tags everywhere. After all, they had to cover up their abduction and what was better than burning down the entire mansion. Because one missing body among a mass of corpses shouldn't be too suspicious. Especially, when it was just a little girl, right? Like he said, nobody should miss her.

"Dammit, where is the girl?" Akihiro grew increasingly erratic while running through the truly spacious house. He was only searching for her bedroom, but the room and the girl were nevertheless impossible to find because the mansion was so fucking big. There were just too many rooms, too many floors, too many doors everywhere. Akihiro focused his eyes on a certain room far down the floor that eventually gained his attention, probably because the door knob was made out of … Wait a moment, was this really solid gold? Yes, it was.

Akihiro was sure, this was the room, he had finally found the little princess. The shinobi slid the door open, and half-way he was surprised by a kunai. The kunai was weakly thrown, but highly accurate and was aimed right for his head. He ducked and easily evaded the attempt on his life. Nevertheless, the kunai had nearly got him, but only nearly.

"Huh, that was slightly surprising", the kunai embedded itself in the wall behind him and Akihiro scanned the room for the mysterious attacker. And what he found was a little terrified girl standing in front of him. She was holding a further kunai and her hands visibly trembled with fear. In summary, the girl was no real threat.

Nevertheless, her little greeting present indicated that she knew about him, and that was quite worrying. Not only was she apparently awake, but she also expected him entering the room and timed her attack perfectly. But how was that possible? How did the girl do that? This couldn't be just a mere coincidence.

But judging by her still sleepy expression, the girl should be still slightly confused and he could use this to his advantage.

"Don't worry, stay calm, I mean you no harm. I am your friend. You can trust me", Akihiro tried his best to calm her down. He didn't have much success, however.

The girl narrowed her eyes dangerously and the amount of malicious intent made him almost flinch, "My friend? I don't think so. So, who are you? Because despite your dubitable claim of having no hostile intentions, you have nevertheless entered without any sort of proper authorization my house as well as my private bedroom. So, once again, who are you, my friend, and what are doing here in?" The girl tightened the grip on her kunai and gone was all of her previous insecurity.

The fuck still sleepy and confused. Hiding his surprise, Akihiro stared at the girl unable comprehend this sudden change of personality. From one moment to the next, the girl had completely changed and he couldn't understand how. There wasn't any other explanation, this was a bluff, this had to be bluff on her part.

Akihiro cleared his throat and decided to rely on his acting skills, "Ahem, I am part of the local ANBU Surveillance Squad stationed in this sector. After I and my colleagues have detected an unknown group entering this mansion, we were dispatched to investigate the case and possibly apprehend them …"

"An ANBU? Based on my knowledge though, the ANBU normally wear masks, don't they?" the girl remained sceptic. She was good, better than expected. He had to be a bit more creative this time.

"Hahahaha, yes, yes, I know, we hear that quite often. I and the rest of my team are from the ANBU police branch and wearing ANBU masks isn't necessarily that of a good idea when you are supposed to operate undercover in the middle of the village."

The girl tilted her head in confusion, "I see, that kind of makes sense."

"So, what should we do now?" the girl beamed and any sign of distrust disappeared from her face. This was easy, way too easy. Was this perhaps a trap?

Akihiro reassured her with a smile, "As far as I know, the rest of my squad should be somewhere around here. So, let's go and search for them and your Oka-san. Okay?".

The girl nodded happily, "Yes, just wait a moment, ANBU-san. I have forgotten something."

She ran back to her bed and procured two swords placed on a weapon stand. The two swords were relatively compared to the rest of her vast collection, which made Akihiro wonder.

Seriously, why did an 8-year-old girl possess an entire arsenal of swords? She had no dolls, no toys, nothing. But what she had was swords, a lot of swords, probably enough to equip an entire army. Hanging on the wall, he could spot a falchion, a falcate, a rapier, a sabre, a messer, a nodachi, a katana, a wakizashi? Was this here an armoury or a bedroom? Because he wasn't sure.

Akihiro stared confused at the two swords the happy girl was carrying in her arms. She definitely liked swords, a lot.

"Don't you think that I shouldn't be armed in such dangerous times, ANBU-san?", the girl held the swords tightly to her chest and he suspected that she probably didn't even know how to use them.

"Yes, that is true. So, are you ready now?" Akihiro laughed.

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	10. Arc II Chapter II

**II**

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 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

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 **Arc II Chapter II**

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Carrying her swords, Asami wandered in her pyjama through the dark house and followed the unknown stranger. His made up ANBU tale wasn't actually that bad and quite believable. Seriously, she had to praise him later for his excellent and entertaining storytelling. Unfortunately, she had sensed them and tracked their Chakra signature since the beginning. One of them was at the moment stationary together with Oka-san, while another was sweeping the rest of the house. They had captured Oka-san and she hoped for them that they didn't lay a single finger on her. Otherwise, they would pay dearly. Yes, they would pay and she wouldn't forgive them.

Asami yawned and wanted to rub her tired eyes. *Yawn*, thanks to them, she was brutally ripped out of her peaceful slumber, assholes. That wasn't nice, not nice at all. They had woken her up at such an uncivilized hour and she was still sleepy.

But why were they here? They were obviously not simple burglars. No, they had to be shinobi and experienced ones too considering the fact that he was able to dodge her kunai. But they weren't here to kill her, otherwise he would have already attacked her. But he didn't. Instead, they wanted her alive, but for what?

Asami pulled the man's sleeves, "ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san …"

"Yes, what is?" he sounded slightly annoyed and Asami was wondering why.

"ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, do you know why these men are here? Do they want to hurt me or Oka-san?", Asami was worried and used her Big puppy eyes. She could defend herself, but that wasn't the case for Oka-san. She was their hostage and that was the only reason that kept her from murdering all three of them. They had Oka-san and Asami had to act carefully, for now.

"Who knows. Maybe, maybe not, I don't know", the fake ANBU ignored her.

"ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, are you sure that they don't want to hurt Oka-san?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, can you promise me that you will protect Oka-san and me."

"Yes, I promise", Akihiro sighed and hoped that the girl would finally stop bothering him. She was annoying, extremely annoying.

"ANBU-san, ANBU-san, ANBU-san, thank you ANBU-san, thank you for protecting Oka-san", Asami smiled happily. She almost had him. He had to lower his guard just a little bit more.

"No problem", Akihiro was surprised by her sudden smile, but he recovered quickly. Because he couldn't shake off this strange feeling that something about this girl was wrong.

Asami tilted her head, "ANBU-san, are you really able to do that? I mean, are you really able to protect us?"

"Yes, I am."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Really, really?"

"Yes."

"Really, really, really?"

"For the last time, yes I am and now shut the fuck up", Akihiro exploded. Enough was enough, the girl was seriously getting on his nerves.

"Yes, yes, I will shut up, for now", Asami rolled her eyes. This was going to a long night. Because once again, fate wasn't on her side and he lived. She and her kunai just needed one good opportunity and he was dead.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Akihiro ignored the girl and kept walking. He ignored the girl and her personality that constantly fluctuated between her innocent childish side and more serious one, which was extremely unusual to say the least. Something was wrong with the girl, very wrong, and her presence, her aura, her eyes, everything about her made him feel uneasy. His instincts were warning him and they told him to get as far away from the girl as possible. The little girl was dangerous, incredibly dangerous. But how was that possible?

Akihiro stole a short glance at her trying to calm himself. Wearing her warm pyjama and a sleepy disorientated expression on her face, the girl tagged along with her tiny feet. Carrying two swords in her arms, she visibly struggled and tried not to trip over her own feet. In conclusion, the girl was harmless, absolutely harmless and innocuous. She was a normal girl, and nothing more. And the uneasiness was probably just a product of his imagination and his rampant paranoia. In short, nothing extraordinary for an ANBU.

Akihiro sighed relived and looked back, but this time she tripped and fell. The girl dropped her swords and landed on the wooden floor, "Ouch. Can you help me up, ANBU-san?"

Akihiro blinked and mentally facepalmed. She was really completely harmless. And he actually thought that she was dangerous just a moment ago.

"Sure, sure", Akihiro approached her and helped her, but he suddenly hesitated. There it was again, this strange sensation, this uneasy feeling. He felt a cold shiver running down his spine and stopped. The moment he extended his hand to help the girl, all of his senses sharpened and his instincts screamed danger. What he didn't notice, however, was the shimmering kunai hidden within the sleeves of Asami's pyjama, a kunai on which was written his name. Sadly, he eluded death again and his neither his neck nor his collarbone got close enough.

"ANBU-san, is something wrong?" the girl freed him from his sudden stupor and Akihiro was brought back to reality.

"No, nothing, it was nothing", he shook his head and dismissed her concerns with a smile. He pulled her up and together they marched on.

Eventually, Akihiro reached the room and he furrowed his eyebrow, "What are you doing with these kunai?" And more importantly, where did she get them from? He hadn't seen her taking any with her.

"Three people are inside the room. One of them is Oka-san, while the two others are currently unknown to me", the girl stared at him.

Once again, how did she know that? Was she a sensor type or what? No, that was quite unrealistic considering her age. The Sharingan perhaps? As far as he knew, the Sharingan possessed indeed certain sensor capabilities, but ...

"Put them back, I don't think you will need them. Don't worry, they are part of my team", Akihiro smiled and reassured her.

Especially, after he saw what was wrapped aroundher kunai. Were these what he thought?Yes, these were indeed explosive tags and he was wondering how she got her hands on those. Seriously, where did she these explosive tags from? Because having a nice fire show in the middle of the night wasn't exactly helpful. After all, they had little interest in being detected and a few explosions were the last thing they needed.

Akihiro opened the door and entered.

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* * *

In the middle of the room, was standing her captured mother staring emotionlessly into the horizon with her empty eyes.

Akihiro smiled with a certain sense of satisfaction. Ah, Genjutsu. Contrary to popular belief, Genjutsu was indeed sometimes quite useful and not completely useless as usual.

The cheerful girl carelessly dropped her kunai and run off ready to hug her mother with her open arms.

"Oka-san, Oka-san", the ignorant girl beamed, but her all of her hopes were brutally betrayed. She stopped and her entire body froze instantly like ice.

It was a single strike, a single well placed strike from Hagane and his sword. A sword that was easily recognizable thank to its characteristic grain pattern. After all, it was the product of a famous Kumo swordsmith and quality was an important factor. Especially, for ANBU like them.

Hagane decapitated her and took her life. Her mother's head rolled over the floor and her body fell over like a lifeless puppet.

It was over and her mother was lying right in front of a girl that couldn't comprehend what had happened. Asami clenched her fists and inside her heart she felt the confusion, the pain, the sadness, the undiluted hatred. Oka-san was dead. They had taken her, stolen her, killed her, just like that. And her dearest wish was to burn them all alive. What Asami's heart desired was revenge, retribution, justice, her justice.

Akihiro walked up to her, "Then let's grab her and get out of here…"

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Four consecutive explosions sent a blast wave through the room and forced everyone to take cover, except for Akihiro. He was saved by luck, years of experience, and good instincts. Akihiro threw himself onto the ground and avoided thus being blown apart.

Her kunai, he had forgotten about her kunai and paid the price. She didn't drop them, this was planned. The girl had triggered them remotely and nearly got him. But it didn't end there.

"*cough*, *cough*, cough*, *cough*", Akihiro looked up and he didn't like what he saw, he didn't like it absolutely.

The initial could of dust finally settled. But in exchange, he was welcomed by a hailstorm of murderous kunai. They were fast, and more importantly they were directly aimed at him, all of them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight kunai. And a similar number of kunai right behind them. The air was saturated with them and every single kunai had clearly a little present attached to it, a lovely explosive tag.

Akihiro's eyes went wide. Shit, this wasn't good. There was no escape, there should be no escape. This was meant to be his end.

Akihiro didn't have much time and he had to act fast, otherwise he was as good as dead. Driven by the adrenaline and his will to live, his body moved on its own and his mind chose what the most obvious and sensible choice available, running and hoping to not get toasted in the next ten seconds. Powered by the force of desperation, Akihiro ran for his life and took cover behind the first sturdy looking object he found, in this case a sturdy looking stone wall.

And miraculously, he survived. Akihiro survived the following series of detonation largely unharmed. He survived the inferno of fireballs and shrapnel like wooden splinters and filling the air. Eventually, her assault subsided. No more kunai, no more tags, no more running. It only cost him a few burns, a few cuts, one or two ribs, and his right legs that got pierced a sharp piece of metal. But he was still alive, and that was what mattered.

The remaining dust cleared and Akihiro glanced around the corner finally spotting his team mates. Apparently, Ibuki and Hagane got lucky too and didn't suffer any major injuries, which was good to know.

And right in front of them, was standing the girl and her predatory eyes were fixed on them. They wouldn't escape her. The girl wasn't the same as before. Her aura had changed, drastically.

Her face had lost any pretence of happiness, joy, and hope. Maddened by her bloodlust and her desire for revenge, her eyes were slowly filled by an ominous shade of red together with two black dots. They were already dead and their demise was purely a matter of time.

Akihir felt the girl's oscillating Chakra powered by her raw emotions, her hatred. Her Chakra was cold, so extremely cold. It was uncaring, corrosive, powerful, and thirsting for blood, their blood. Akihiro's hands trembled and fear gripped him. Who was this girl? What was this girl?

She drew her steel swords and pointed the polished blade into their direction, "Initially, I thought we could solve this situation peacefully. But it seems that I was rather wrong in that regard."

Her murderous were locked on to them and the girl smiled, but her voice promised inevitable death, destruction, and pain," Instead, you killed Oka-san right before my eyes. Therefore, I am now asking you why, why did you kill her? Can you please tell me who is behind all this, who is responsible for her death?"

Asami closed the distance and she nearly run her sword through the chest of a stunned Ibuki. Her sword would have speared him unless Hagane hadn't intervened just in time and deflected the attack

Hagane blocked the thrust and the girl disengaged immediately backing off. Asami didn't waste any time and attacked again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Their swords clashed and Hagane parried her blows, but they got continuously heavier and faster. And Hagane realised that he was in fact slowly losing ground.

Eventually, the girl discarded all of her technique and instead resorted to brute alone to crack his defence. Her Chakra-powered blows were heavy, heavier than what he could handle. The girl and her sword hit like a sledgehammer and she almost achieved her goal if Hagane hadn't sed one of the oldest tricks in existence. A trick that more often than not worked, asking for help," Ibuki, Akihiro, get your useless asses moving, or do you want me to die here?"

And that saved Hagane. Both shinobi were freed from their stupor and finally joined the fight. Asami was forced back and retreated for now. Nevertheless, all three of them kept an eye on her. Because they had underestimated her before and they nearly paid the price.

"Hagane, Akihiro, we should retreat immediately", Ibuki proposed, "the target is way stronger than expected, high Chunin level minimum."

"And I sure we are already compromised. Especially, after the showy display from before. "

"In summary, every second we spend here, our chances of escaping are falling rapidly …"

"Do you really think I would let you escape that easily?" the girl tilted her head," No, you won't escape my wrath." Asami started her next attack. There was no hesitation, no pause, no mercy. Again, again, again, and again both sides clashed without determining a victor.

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"High Chunin level my ass. She gets faster, stronger and more dangerous with every minute.", Akihiro was tired. He was mentally and physically exhausted, and he knew that as this rate he would collapse soon. Nevertheless, he couldn't give up and had to keep fighting. Because it wasn't over yet.

"I said minimum, you idiot, minimum, not maximum", Ibuki was breathing heavily while staring at the girl. Her sword had already tasted first blood, and it demanded more. She was just waiting for her next opportunity to strike, to finish them.

Her eyes had fully transformed by now and what greeted them were two black Tomoe surrounded by a luminescent red with a touch of glowing purple. They were fighting an Uchiha, and they were losing badly.

Or in short, the situation was fucked up beyond salvation and everyone knew it. The only reason that they were still living was a stupendous amount of luck and Hagane. He was a veteran ANBU, an excellent survivalist, and he was keeping them alive until now.

Hagane took the brunt of her assaults. He blocked, parried, counterattacked. Akihiro and Ibuki had long since realized that there was little doubt that if he fell, then they would follow soon. They stood together or fell together.

However, what truly terrified them was the girl's perfect façade. She didn't show any sign of weakness. No sign of faltering, no sign of fatigue, no sign of exhaustion, nothing. The girl seemed almost invincible and interiorly they already knew the truth, they had lost and death was just a matter of time. The girl was right, there was no escape and this was their end.

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Akihiro, Ibuki and Hagane mobilised their remaining forces and faced her. They were wounded, they were tired, they were battered, and they were low on Chakra, but they weren't defeated.

The girl formed a seal and the next round had begun. Her lungs inhaled the surrounding air and what followed was a giant wall of purple flames, a sea of blazing heat and destruction.

Akihiro countered the flames with his Suiton and he could literally feel how her fire was draining his Chakra reserves at an alarming speed. Her Katon was powerful, extremely powerful. Because suddenly, her flames turned purple-white and that was the moment they had transformed into the most potent and primarily annoying version of Katon he had ever witnessed.

Her flames just evaporated his Suiton without the slightest hint of effort and covered the area in a thick mist of steam. In the end, Akihiro was able to deflected the attack, but it cost him once again a lot of Chakra. Elemental weakness my ass, his Suiton was nearly useless against her fucking Katon.

Akihiro prepared himself for the inevitable follow-up attack. They knew her and they knew that she was coming. And she knew that they were waiting for her. Akahiro gripped a few kunai and scanned the surroundings. The girl was somewhere nearby, hidden within the steam.

And as expected, she attacked using the steam as an improvised smoke screen. Akahiro located her and threw his kunai and his tags. Unfortunately, her damned unbreakable purple shield stepped in once again and blocked the explosions. He really hated this thing, a spherical barrier of pure Chakra that protected her no matter what. And not forgetting, her shield was fucking sturdy, not say seemingly indestructible and impenetrable. Raiton, Fuiton, Katon, Suiton, Doton, everything was useless.

Moreover, the girl was fast, extremely fast. She was always on the move, always changing position, never stationary. And if that wasn't enough, she could teleport. They didn't know how, but the girl got her hands on a teleportation Jutsu and it was horribly annoying. She was in front of you, over you, next to you, behind you. In summary, she was potentially everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. And it was painfully clear that it was her who dictated the pace and not them. The girl was toying with them.

This time, however, they charged and met her head on. Akihiro noticed the evil grin appearing on the girl's face and he immediately realised, they were fucked. And he was right.

Akihiro caught a glimpse of the electrical sparks dancing through the air, but then it was already too late. A giant stream of glowing plasma traversed the ionized air and a purple lightning struck through the ground with all its might.

Hagane and Ibuki were killed instantly and their scorched bodies were thrown back by the impact together with him. Akihiro got lucky, however, and survived more or less with just a few third degree burns everywhere. Accompanied by a certain sense of melancholy, he was lying on the ground while the never ending rain kept pouring down on him and his fallen comrades.

Hagane and Ibuki were dead and the self-destruction seals had already activated. Their corpses were slowly decomposed by the body seal and turned into ash. All tangible evidence would be destroyed and they would take all of their secrets with them.

The girl approached him holding in her right hand Hagane's bloodied blade. She had picked it up.

She looked around and what she saw was rain, death, destruction, and fire. Her home was reduced to a pile of rubble and nothing remained but a lifeless ruin. She stared at him and the luminescent red of her eyes bored right into him, "Can you tell me **why** have you done this, **why** have you killed her, **why** have you stolen Oka-san from me? Can you give me an answer?" It was simple question, innocent questions. Nevertheless, Asami didn't really expect an answer.

She asked him why and Akihiro decided to answer her. These were his last moments and he could still give her a few friendly words. He looked up and smiled, "I don't think you really want to know the answer because the truth can often be horrible. Therefore, never ask for the why. Trust me, you will only be disappointed."

The answer didn't satisfy her and the girl narrowed her displeased eyes," You should know, normally, I am a friend of these pearls of wisdom. But this time, things are different, my friend. I have lost more than mere words could ever hope to replace, and I will never get her back. So much of a future that could have been was lost in a single night. I will feel forever now a pain that never will be cured, never be healed, never disappear. An eternal infinite pain that I will forever carry deep down within my heart until the end of my life. So, who are you to tell me that I shouldn't ask for the why? Because I can assure you, the day I will find out who is responsible for all this …"

The girl smiled happily and whispered into his ears," That day I will serve justice to all the people who have wronged me and I will make them pay the price. Because they will know despair, and they will know pain too."

Akihiro's eyes widened in horror and he was left speechless. What had they done? Asami continued smiling and brought her sword down ending his life. Her Chakra was depleted and a tired Asami broke down. She had given everything she had and she had won, but it wasn't enough. In the end, she had failed to protect Oka-san.

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* * *

A squad of ANBU arrived shortly after. They were dispatched to investigate the explosions that had suddenly erupted in the middle of the village, and not forgetting the source of the giant purple lightning bolt they had witnessed before. The lighting couldn't be a natural phenomenon and it was obviously the product of a Jutsu. Someone had created the lightning, someone powerful with huge amounts of Chakra.

The ANBU were greeted by a scene of total destruction. The original mansion was gone and replaced by a vast field of lifeless rubble. Kunai were lying around and decorated the piles of debris. Craters and scorch marks everywhere. Splintered ripped apart wood littered the ground. And numerous small fires were burning everywhere and illuminated the night only waiting to be extinguished by the rain. This wasn't just destruction, this was a battlefield, a sight Kakashi was sadly deeply familiar with.

" What do you think happened here, Captain?"

Kakashi picked up one of the kunai and inspected the iron, "I have no idea, Tenzo."

"Captain, we have found a potential survivor. It is a girl, but she is unfortunately unconscious at the moment", a further ANBU appeared and reported.

Kakashi discarded the kunai and nodded, "Understood, bring me to her."

They reached her location quickly. Judging by all the destruction around them, they were probably close to the epicentre of the lightning strike.

The characteristic scent of oxidized iron and burned flesh floated in the air and announced death and carnage, but there were no corpses to be seen, no dead bodies, nothing. There was only a little unconscious girl soaked in blood and holding on to a sword.

Kakashi approached her," How is she?"

A female ANBU kneeled down and diagnosed, "As far as I can say, relatively good. No wounds, no cuts, just a few light scratches and bruises here and there and signs of Chakra exhaustion. To be honest, it is a miracle that she has survived all this."

"Yes, a miracle indeed", Kakashi murmured absentmindedly. Chakra exhaustion? How was that possible?

" Yugao, what do you exactly mean by Chakra exhaustion?" the implications were clear and Kakashi for confirmation. They had a battlefield. They had a mysterious purple lightning. And they had an unconscious girl suffering from Chakra exhaustion. So, what was the most logical conclusion?

Yugao looked up and stopped her medical Ninjutsu," Her Chakra reserves are completely depleted and I don't know why. Because from what I can tell, Captain, her reserves are enormous for her age. Minimum high Chunin level upwards, potentially Jonin and more."

Chunin? Jonin? Kakashi fell silent and focused his eyes on the unconscious girl. That was massive. He had to inform the Hokage about this, immediately.

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	11. Arc II Chapter III

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter III**

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Asami opened her heavy eye lids. Unfortunately, she had the misfortune to stare right into to a very bright object commonly called the "sun" and she averted therefore her head as fast as possible. Stupid sun. Asami had finally woke up after what felt like a small eternity and found herself encircled by an arrangement of beeping machines and monitors. Lying in her bed that was hard as stone, Asami rolled her eyes as the sound of the nearby cardiogram increasingly annoyed her. Because she was largely fine aside from her eyes that were itching for some mysterious reasons. Asami rubbed her eyes, but the uncomfortable itching just didn't disappear no matter what.

Ignoring her eyes for the time being, the girl scanned her surroundings.

Based on the white interior and the pleasant odour of alcohol, she was obviously in some kind of hospital, or rather some kind of medical facility at least. Which was no wonder, however, considering her condition and what happened …

Asami tilted her head in confusion and murmured," Happened, happened."

There was something important about that word. Something that was related to her present condition and the reason why she was here, but she couldn't remember what despite having the feeling of knowing it just a few seconds ago. Mysterious, truly mysterious.

Trapped in a state of helplessness and disorientation, Asami scratched her head and was wondering where she exactly was? She looked around and searched for any useful clues. Was this a hospital, or what? Based on the equipment in the room and the fragrant smell of alcohol, most likely yes. But why was she in a hospital? Was she ill? Was it something serious? What had happened?

Asami didn't know and her memory didn't give her any satisfying answer, or rather no answer at all. At the moment, everything in her mind was nebulous, misty, spotty and her head felt dizzy. And Asami wasn't too sure if something was wrong with her. After all, she was perfectly fine, right, wasn't she? However, why was she here then? And where was "here" again? She looked around once further and didn't find anything helpful. Was this perhaps a hospital?

Clueless as before, the girl turned towards the window, and the primary reason for her awakening, the sun. It was clearly early in the morning and the playful rays of twilight were still shimmering on the horizon. Dawn greeted her and a cheerful Asami returned the favour in her own special way. Acting on an inner impulse, the girl greeted the sun and waved back. She kept waving, and waving, and waving, and waving, and waving.

Eventually, Asami realised that there was something seriously wrong with her. Sure, sure, she was a bit of a natural airhead from time to time, but never to this degree. This led her to inevitable conclusion that she was suffering from some kind of shock? Because that would explain the dizziness, her blurry vision, her headache, her lack of concentration, and her periodic memory losses …

Asami tipped her lips and mused pensively. Hmm, what did she want to say again? Because she had forgotten it. Although, it couldn't be that important. These were problems for the future her. Weakened by her Chakra exhaustion, the confused girl yawned and grabbed a nearby pillow, her pillow. Slumber came easy to a tired and only semi-conscious Asami and she buried herself under the still warm blanket.

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One hour? Two hours? Three hours? Whatever, a few hours later a sleepy Asami awoke once again and slowly the thick fog covering her mind was clearing up. Her memory returned and reminded a saddened Asami of what had occurred that fateful night. She had lost her, she had lost her forever.

Supressing the stream of tears rolling down her face, Asami felt the sadness inside her heart, the pain, the desperation. Nevertheless, she endured. Asami endured and kept up her perfect façade because had had no other choice.

Feeling her numb limbs soured by her extensive use of Chakra, the discouraged girl directed her main attention at something else. Something she considered more important at the moment, albeit she didn't believe herself in the slightest.

Nevertheless, Asami started with her initial damage assessment report. Relying on her memories, Asami replayed the fight in her mind and analysed her own performance, her mistakes, her defects, her weaknesses. In short, everything she had done wrong and went wrong. Because there was always room for improvement and nobody was perfect, even her. And her conclusion was relatively simple, she was weak, this body was weak, disappointingly weak. Ultimately, she had failed because she lacked power. She lacked the power to protect her, to save her. She lacked the power to destroy them, to kill them. And she had paid a very biter price for her mistake, for her own weakness.

Asami closed her eyes and inspected her body.

As expected, she couldn't move. Her limbs limps were heavy and stiff. Hopefully she hadn't completely shredded all of her muscles in that fight, albeit that might be possible considering all the Chakra she had used. Fortunately, her stamina proved to be superior and in the end she outlasted them physically before breaking down.

Because moving at such high speeds took a toll on her very limited Chakra reserves, and not forgetting using any kind of improvised teleportation repeatedly was exceptionally demanding. Especially, if you consider that she had created the Jutsu just a few months ago by heavily modifying the Kawarimi.

The problem was, she couldn't fully satisfy the massive Chakra requirements of neither Jutsu nor her movements with her limited natural Chakra alone. No matter what, her body simply refused to produce the necessary quantity of Yang to create Chakra. Instead, her Yin kept growing, and growing, and growing at such an astonishing speed that this unbalanced state slowly started to bother her.

If this trend continued, then she would solely consist of Yin in a few years and become some kind of immaterial ghost, which less funny than it sounded and likelier than you thought.

No, if she had just relied on her natural Chakra, then she would have dried up after a few minutes. thanks to her Ninjutsu and got her ass kicked. Because she had to admit that these assholes weren't exactly bad, not to say quite strong. They had excellent reflexes and reaction times, they were skilled, and not forgetting their teamwork was annoyingly good. In summary, these guys forced her to go all out against them, and Asami didn't like that.

Fortunately, she didn't get her ass kicked because she could always rely on her own little pseudo Ckakra. After all, she had plenty of Yin, didn't she?

Not only did her lovely purple Chakra pass its first field test with bravura, but it also showed a few very interesting and promising properties. Her purple Yin Chakra was strong, in fact unnaturally strong, and she couldn't explain why. While her Yang didn't listen to her at all, using and moulding her Yin came just naturally to her as if it was a part of her.

Normally, she never used this Chakra to fuel her Jutsu as it was relatively difficult to control and had the uncanny tendency to turn everything she touched purple. You got purple Chakra, purple fire, purple lighting, purple everything. While she loved her beautiful amethyst-like purple and the colour made her always feel a little bit proud and special deep down in her heart, turning anything purple was nevertheless a bit too much. Too much unwanted publicity, too much unnecessary attention.

But now that she had observed what this Chakra could really do, she might reconsider and use it as her primary source of Chakra in the future. Especially, when she was about to get serious. After all, it was always advisable to have still a few aces up your sleeve when it was necessary to corriger la fortune.

Compared to her normal Chakra, her own version was way more potent, albeit the enhanced potency came with a price, a natural instability. Her purple Chakra was uncontrollable, rampant and difficult to handle. Moreover, using it had always an "exhilarating" effect on her, not to say feeling this wonderful and powerful Chakra flowing through her veins was simply addicting.

Nevertheless, the main crux of her purple Chakra was the fact that her body could hardly process the necessary amounts of Chakra she desired, nor access the full power of Chakra. The problem was the natural Chakra conducting system, the Chakra pathways, the Chakra network or whatever it was called, was flawed, deeply flawed.

The natural system was way too inefficient, scaled horribly with higher concentrations of Chakra, and in fact strongly limited your access to your Chakra, which was most likely the reason that Chakra tended to manifest itself outside of your body at a certain point.

The system restricted the circulation of your entire Chakra because the pathways were only able to take in a small amount of your full potential while the majority of Chakra was practically sealed by a troublesome formation called the eight gates.

In summary, the pathway system was in her eyes nothing that had to be cherished. No, it was nothing but a restriction, a limitation, an obstacle, an obstacle that had to be destroyed by her hands at all costs. Asami wanted her Chakra to be unshackled, to be free, to be completely hers and not bound by some stupid Chakra points.

And that was moment the final decision was made to undertake in the foreseeable future a little personal project, to turn her current body artificially into a more suitable vessel for her Yin based Chakra by using her excellent Chakra control to the fullest.

Asami would collapse the hated pathway system within, and nothing would stop her, even if it was the last thing she did. Because these were just a few Chakra points and if they could be broken, then they could be reconstructed too through sheer force alone. Yes, her plan was to create her own Chakra network, a better Chakra network, a perfect Chakra network.

What she was about to do may sound crazy, which it surely was to a certain degree, and it would significantly weaken her physically and her capabilities in the next years, but she was certain that she would succeed. Asami wouldn't fail and ultimately she would get what she desired, even when she had to pay a little insignificant price in exchange.

After all, everything had a seen or unseen price and nothing was for free. Someone always paid the bill, and that was her body in this case. But considering that her the lost time mainly consisted of useless academyyears, there was no real damage done.

Sure, sure, she would lose the 99% of her power because ruining your Chakra network was obviously not the brightest idea and participating in the daily Taijutsu sparrings would be in the future a no-go, but if she had to play for the time being a second Hinata, so be it.

Asami rubbed her eyes, but not because she was tired or something similar. No, she had almost forgotten these fucking annoying itching eyes she now had. For some stupid reason, her eyes had gone crazy that night and had nearly blinded her in the middle of the fight. Because suddenly, her entire vision and perception changed drastically and that threw off her aim, all of her movements, and her timing. Thank to her magical eyes intervening without a warning and turning everything into slow motion, she got nearly bisected a few times. Nevertheless, she had to find out quickly what was wrong with her eyes and what had caused this phenomenon. A mirror would be useful in that regard

Asami noticed that a hand mirror was just lying next to her placed on a commode. The girl blinked and grabbed the mirror," Speak of the devil, that … was … unexpected."

Asami inspected the mirror and stared concentratedly at the polished glass to activate her magical eyes. The girl waited, and waited, and waited, but she had no success. Nothing happened and Asami scratched her head. Had she forgotten something important that was necessary for the activation? An activation sequence? An ancient spell? Her blood? A few human sacrifices …

Asami stopped her thoughts the moment she saw her eyes, or rather three black tomoe surrounded by a luminescent red that were staring right back at her. This was …, this was … There was no doubt, she was an ...

Asami placed the mirror back on the commode and began to laugh manically unseen by anyone. Seriously, she couldn't believe it, she was one last living Uchiha on this world, wasn't this funny? The girl fell peacefully asleep with a satisfied smile on her face because she knew now for sure that she was indeed special.

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The days went by and Asami was slowly recuperating. But being shackled to a hospital bed wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, not to say monotonic experience.

Every second she spent in this bed was unused time, wasted time. Especially, when she had better things to do, namely setting a plan in motion. And not forgetting, it was ultimately boring here, extremely boring. Aside from a few doctors and nurses visiting her, she was currently alone, completely alone and nobody took notice of her existence. Asami missed her, she really missed her, and she felt the hole in her heart growing.

Furthermore, Asami was running dangerously low on suitable reading material despite the fact that she had repeatedly threatened the hospital staff with personally igniting this damned children's books and using them as a bonfire if they didn't bring her finally something that didn't insult her sense of literacy. No picture books, no life of the little princess whoever, no tale of an utterly gutsy shinobi.

As a consequence, the girl was currently curiously reading a newspaper in her hands, the Daily Konoha Mail _,_ and she didn't particularly like what she saw.

Asami meticulously scanned the pages searching for useful information. Clearly, no state secrets, but let's say what was the general public opinion on certain matters. A little a voice in her mind , however, warned her that the journalistic style used reminded her strongly of the typical tabloid press.

After a few pages, a slightly furious Asami furrowed her eyebrow as she spotted a very, very, very interesting article if you only read bold letters.

 **"Mass murderer roaming free?**

Current investigations related to the brutal slaughter of the rich Minami family last week haven't brought forward any new information and the competent Konoha authorities haven't given an official statement yet. In summary, the Hokage and his administration remain silent concerning this utter failure in inner security.

Can we, the non-shinobi population, still feel safe in Konohagakure?

However, do not worry, we from the Daily Konoha Mail have perhaps found potential clues and evidence to solve this mysterious murder case.

According to certain reliable, but sadly confidential, sources among the investigation team, the dispatched ANBU squad was able to find only a single survivor in the ruins of the mansion. The girl and the **last remaining member of her family** , **Minami** **Asami** , was brought exhausted and **blood soaked** into the nearest hospital.

The problem is, however, that aside from the surviving girl absolutely nothing was found despite clear signs of heavy fighting between professional shinobi in the area. No bodies, no traces, no clues, nothing.

Consequently, we can rightly ask ourselves how could an eight-year-old girl survive such a battle largely unharmed? The **answer** appears to be relatively simple.

Unconfirmed and mostly baseless rumours exist that **the girl** could be the potential **culprit** **behind** this **massacre** and could have **plotted the death of her family**. The reason behind her actions might be currently unknown, but doesn't a **similar** case too? Didn't the prodigious **Uchiha Itachi** suddenly murder his entire clan for inexplicable reasons too?

Although unlikely, could **the** innocent **girl** be in reality a **cold blooded** **murderer?** "

Asami stared at the pages and had to chuckle slightly.

Considering that Konoha an authoritarian military dictatorship run by so called shinobi, Konoha had a pretty awful media censorship. Because she didn't think that a newspaper was allowed to criticize the glorious leadership of the infallible Hokage openly and even call him indirectly incompetent. Apparently, Konoha had still about information control, propaganda, and the benefits of manipulating public opinion.

Moreover, she didn't appreciate at all that she had become a victim of the famous rumour mill and journalistic sensationalism, albeit the impact should be negligible. After all, she wasn't right on the front page and which idiot would take this kind of stories seriously? The majority of articles were obviously fabricated with a few half-truths mixed in and titles like "The sexiest shinobi alive ranking", "Secret Hyuga love affair", and "Which Hokage are you quiz?" surely didn't promote an image of being a reliable source of information."

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* * *

The moment Asami was seriously contemplating about testing the combustible qualities of the Daily Konoha Mail and if she should pay these assholes a friendly visit and raze all of theirs offices to the ground and sow the smouldering ruin with salt, two men opened the door and entered.

Asami looked up from this incredible quality newspaper and eyed the newcomers with a suspicious eyebrow. Who were these people? And why were they here?

One of them was an old man clothed in red robes with a characteristic red hat, and the other was a sliver haired ANBU without his mask. The duo approached her bed and an immensely irritated Asami crumpled up the paper and threw it out of the window.

Afterwards, the girl dedicated her full attention to the two men that had quickly gained her interest.

After all, being visited by the Hokage in person as well as an ANBU was a rare commodity. Especially, if you were just a little girl. So, what did they want from her? What was the reason for their visit?

The Hokage spoke in a gentle and grandfatherly tone," How are you, Asami? Do they treat you well and give you something half-way edible? Because I can still remember the food back during the war was atrocious and how I thought that the Iryo-nin were secretly trying to poison me, ahahaha."

The Hokage was laughing, but Asami remained visibly sceptical. So, he knew her name. Not a good sign, absolutely not a good sign. It was painfully obvious that the Hokage wanted something specific, otherwise he wouldn't be here.

"Rather well considering the overall circumstances. However, to what can the humble me owe the honour of this unannounced visit, Hokage-sama?" Asami replied with a healthy dose of suspicion in her black eyes.

Hiruzen didn't show any reaction and regarded the girl with benevolence. The girl was extremely well guarded for such a young age, that was sure. Her expression and body language betrayed nothing. Was she trying to hide something?

He personally oversaw the investigation of this special incident due its relative prominence, which was by no means small. A large area in the middle of Konha had been destroyed in a single night by heavy fighting, one of Konoha richest non-clan families had been completely wiped out, and only a little girl had miraculously survived that was apparently capable of summoning giant purple lightning at her own discretion. There were a lot of questions that had to be answered.

"Can't an old man look for the younger generations in times of need? In the end, isn't the Hokage the father of the entire villager, and isn't everyone a small part of his big family", Hiruzen's sagely voice explained, but he didn't particularly impress the girl.

Asami rolled visibly her annoyed eyes. Took them bloody long enough, but her unofficial interrogation squad had finally arrived. She didnt expect, however, that they would send the Hokage himself. Had he really nothing better to do than personally bothering little children?

The girl sighed, "Sure, sure, your notion to console me is noted and appreciated, Hokage-sama. But I don't understand why the Hokage seems to beat strongly around the bush instead of telling me what he truly desires."

"So, what do you **really** want from me and how can I assist you, Hokage-sama?" Asami giggled sweetly armed with a polite fake smile, "Don't forget, honesty is sometimes the best policy, but not always. Don't you think so too, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen was a bit perplexed to say the least and Kakashi too, because you didn't see every day someone with the courage to talk back to the Hokage in such a frivolous manner. Nevertheless, he had seen worse over the years and he maintained his outward façade.

Hiruzen took a long breath on his wooden pipe and expelled the smoke from his mouth. A nebulous cloud filled the air and slowly drifted away through an opened window.

"This slightly accelerates the entire procedure. Then let's get straight to the point, do you know what exactly happened that night, Asami?" the Hokage asked.

Asami analysed the Hokage's seemingly innocent question, a classical open-ended question. Unfortunately for him, she could play this game too.

Asami smiled and assured, "I know as much as you do, Hokaga-sama."

"And that would be?"

"Nothing relevant."

"Nothing **relevant**? So, you know something. What do you consider in your opinion then as not relevant?" the Hokage wasn't convinced and spotted her obvious omission.

"I mean what I say, really, I know absolutely nothing relevant aside from what should be plainly obvious. And the same applies to you, otherwise you wouldn't be here to interrogate an injured child who has lost her entire family a few days ago."

"And now you are standing right in front of me, the only surviving eye witness, and are trying to get a satisfying answer, but I have to disappoint you. You have no idea who the attackers are, and I have no idea too", Asami explained bored.

The Hokage fell silent and gave up for the time being. Because it didn't seem like she was lying.

"And why did you hold a sword in your hand then and why was your Chakra completely exhausted? You were involved in the fighting **,** weren't you?" standing non-committedly in the dark corner, Kakshi cut in and observed the mysterious girl.

Good observation, my friend. Asami exchanged looks with the unknown silver haired shinobi and gambled," I assume that he is the one who has found me, isn't he?"

Hiruzen nodded and introduced the man, "Yes, you are right, Asami. This is Hatake Kakashi, the Captain of the ANBU squad that has found you. And he has a point, did you fight against them that night, or not?"

The Hokage narrowed his eyes and the mildly demanding tone in his voice didn't escape her.

Asami waited until her rhetorical pause took full effect," Then I will tell you a nice little story. Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a princess that met three men that night.

The men claimed to be part of the ANBU and investigate strange occurrences in the vicinity. The ignorant girl believed their tale and dutifully followed the three men. But in an unexpected turn of events, the trio betrayed her trust, the trust the princess has placed in them. The three shinobi killed the princess's mother before her very eyes and in her rage the little princess decided to kill them no matter the cost, no matter the price. And in the end, our little princess succeeded. The trio wasn't anymore, vanquished by her purple lightning of divine judgement."

No words were spoken and the silent tick tack of a hospital clock could be heard in the background.

Asami smiled suavely, "So, how do you like my personal fairy tale, Hokage-sama and Kakashi. Do you have anything else to ask? Because I would like to rest now."

The Hokage accepted and his voice grew soft, "I think that should suffice. After all, we have used up already enough of your time, Asami. We will leave then."

Both were leaving the room slightly, but the girl interrupted them," Wait a moment, I have forgotten to ask something important, Hokage-sama."

"Yes, and that would be?" Hiruzen turned around and stared at the girl.

"Thank you, Kakashi, for saving me and securing my swords, because they are all very precious to me as they are largely birthday presents that Oka-san gave me. And I would be really sad, if I lost them. So, could I please get my swords back?" Asami begged trying to get the last potential clue to the identity of the attackers back into her hands. And not forgetting, she really wanted her swords back.

"That should be no issue, I can personally guarantee you will get them all back", the Hokage assured the girl with a gentle smile.

 **༻** **༺**

"What do you think, Kakashi, is she telling the truth?" Hiruzen walked down a corridor and requested a second opinion.

Kakashi reacted atomically as ever, "Difficult to say, but the probability is high that at least some parts of her version are true. The only question is how much and what. After all, the damage is real and an entire street got nearly razed to the ground that night. In summary, the girl is most likely the culprit we are searching for. And if she is indeed the user of this Raiton Jutsu, then it isn't exactly impossible that that any physical evidence of the attackers was destroyed like she said. The most important question is, however, why was the girl even targeted to begin with? The girl doesn't seem to possess anything valuable aside from being exceptionally strong for her age, and I strongly doubt that our mysterious attackers knew about her strength. So, why did they attack her? What makes her so interesting in their eyes?"

Kakashi was right. Hiuzen stroked his chin and reflected, "That is indeed a good question, Kakashi. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer the and we will probably never get any. The ways of the shinobi are sometimes strange and filled with mysteries. At the moment, we can only rely on her version of the events and assume that told us the truth. However, do you also realize, Kakashi, what it means if her story is even only partially true?"

Kakashi continued walking and summarized succinctly, "You mean that we have currently a non-graduated and non-promoted at least Jonin level Kunoichi hanging around at the academy based on her destructive potential. A Kunoichi with either plenty of combat experience or a truly prodigious situational awareness judging by her way of describing every minuscule detail of the battle."

"And on top of that, a little girl with absolute no hesitation in eliminating her opponents by every means necessary. In short, we have found an ideal future ANBU candidate hiding in plain sight and able to fool the entire academy staff for years about the true extent of her capabilities."

Hiruzen nodded and agreed, "Yes, I thought the same, albeit we should still wait a few years. After all, the ANBU aren't a place suited for children. Nevertheless, it is quite concerning that nobody within the academy had noticed her enormous potential. So much talent, and no one had even the slightest idea."

Kakshi remained silent and followed the Hokage," That is true."

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	12. Arc II Chapter IV

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter IV**

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The ardent sun was burning down on a certain girl that was her victim. Asami sat on the grass and meditated to calm herself. Because she was waiting for a few people that didn't come yet and she was slowly growing … impatient to say the least.

Using her meditation, Asami was concentrating her Chakra, or rather she was currently playing with her Chakra, which was way funnier. Letting her Yin freely circulate, her potent reserves electrified the very air and saturated the immediate area. Her entire body was filled by her Yin, her entire body was Yin, and it felt wonderful, exhilarating, exciting.

This was the result of years of painful and strenuous training. Her weak and underdeveloped Chakra system had finally reached a satisfactory level of combat readiness.

Furthermore, Asami was able to tame her purple Chakra that had grown rather docile since she had gained the Sharingan. Therefore, a certain girl had now a few interesting ideas of how two combined her elemental affinities with her purple Chakra. Katon, Raiton and explosives, wasn't that a wonderful trinity?

Because Asami had noticed that any kind of Chaka when being highly compressed tended to be, let's say, explosive if a certain level of Chakra density and critical mass was reached. The first tests were promising in that regard and confirmed the basic principles of the prototype of her newly developed Ninjutsu.

Especially, a certain fascinating Jutsu of the Fourth Hokage was particularly helpful during the development and provided a lot of useful information. Asami stumbled over the basic concept of Rasengan during her studies in the Konoha shinobi library.

After all, there was no shame in learning, or rather stealing from your enemy. Unfortunately, however, a curious Asami couldn't find anything about the Fouth's famous teleportation technique.

It only took a few attempt, a lot of time, and a whole writing block full of notes to reconstruct the Jutsu without any prior knowledge. The volume, the required quantity of Chakra, the density, the rotational speed, etc., etc., were all unknown factors. But in the end, recreating the Rasengan on an autodidactically wasn't that difficult with a bit of common sense and logic.

Asami called her roaming Chakra back and opened her eyes again. They were finally here and they were in for something. Two freshly promoted Genin with the shiny new forehead protectors and an accompanying Jonin approached training ground no. 3. They were late. So, what should she do?

Should she bash their heads against the nearest tree? Should she greet them with a few kunai and explosive tags? No, no, too extreme. After all, she didn't want to murder them outright, albeit they certainly would have deserved it for making her wait two fucking hours.

But relax, Asami, relax. Don't give in to the thoughts and desires of physical violence, Asami. She had survived five useless years at the academy and a curriculum boring enough to kill you. She had survived this bad excuse of an education before finally deciding to skip the final year and leave this stupid waste of time.

Asami stood up and stretched her tired arms. Sitting on the ground wasn't comfortable. Next time she would certainly bring a chair and a parasol with her.

 **༻** **༺**

Asami was visibly annoyed and glared at the arriving trio, "I know that the universe is a strange place full of coincidences. But how is it possible that all three of you geniuses are late."

The present Jonin scratched his head," Well, didn't we tell you …"

The girl interrupted him with a furious stare," Yes, you did. You are late because Aritame was too nervous and overslept, because Yukihiro got lost on the way, and you, sensei, because you were so excited about your first assigned Genin team that you got mixed up and entered the wrong training ground despite you being the person who selected this place to begin with."

"But it's true", Aritame protested and clenched his fists.

"Yes, that might be, but that doesn't help me, Aritame", Asami directed her angry gaze at the boy.

Her sensei intervened, "Let's calm down a bit. Soemtimes unexpected things can happen, right?"

"Yes", Asami grumbled and let it be.

The Jonin smiled uneasily, "Anyway, now we come to the typical and traditional introduction. Give me your name and tell me something about you, your hobbies, your dreams, etc. Then I will start. I am Karahashi Masasane and obviously your sensei. Although I am certainly not the most experienced Jonin under the sun, I will give nevertheless my best. And about the rest you probably don't care. Therefore, I will skip that part."

"I am Kira Aritame, and my dream is it to be the greatest Hokage ever", the boy shouted and Asami had the misfortune to sit right next to him. Not only was Aritame annoyingly loud, but he was also one of these stupid I want to be Hokage types. Great, just great.

After some time, the shy and timid Yukihiro continued, "I am Kodama Yukihiro and I … And I … And I …" Everyone was waiting, and waiting, and waiting, but nothing came. Yukihiro was evidently another case of a Genin that was fundamentally unfit to serve. How the fuck did he even pass the graduation exam? Were Konoha's recruitment standards really that low? Apparently, yes. Everyone was eligible as long as you know how to die.

Asami sighed and noticed that they were all looking at her. It was her turn now and she wasn't particularly motivated, "As you should already know, my name is Minami Asami. My primary hobbies are - redacted - and my dream is - redacted -."

Masasane smiled at the little princess," Yes, that was highly … informative, Asami-chan. Couldn't you tell us a bit more about you?"

"No", Asami gave him a blank stare.

"Please, just a tiny bit …"

"I said no", Asami didn't change opinion.

Masasane sighed and gave up," I understand." This was definitely a difficult team.

 **༻** **༺**

"Anyway, do you know why I have called you all here?" Masasane smiled.

Aritame raised his hand, "Because we are now a Genin team and need a sensei to go on cool missions and adventures?"

"Yes, Aritame, among other things. You have already a forehead protector, but you aren't an official Genin team yet. Because you still have to complete a final test first."

"Then let's do it. Come on team, we will make it", Aritame bumped his fist into the sky and tried to rally them, which of course didn't achieve the desired effect. An Uchiha like Asami as well as the silent Yukihiro were obviously the wrong type of people for this kind of stupid sentimentalities.

Asami giggled sadistically in the background _._ Her lips formed a smile of pure schadenfreude and of a satisfied girl that enjoyed other people's suffering.

"Sensei, I have a question concerning our team's unusual composition", Asami ignored Aritame.

"Yes, Asami-chan. What is?" Masasane smiled, while Asami wasn't amused.

Why did everyone she met always chan her? Did she really look that innocuous?Asami inspected her tiny hands, her kimono, her hairstyle, her petite stature, and a conclusion was quickly reached, forget it, no objection made. She capitulated, she looked indeed quite harmless.

"Sensei, as far as I know, the typical Genin team is built in a way that the various members complement each other strength-wise, right?"

"Normally, the strongest of the age-group is automatically paired with the accordingly weakest, and as the third member you get someone else. Like, for example, the top absolvent of this year, Hyuga Neji, was paired together with one of the weaker students like Rock Lee."

"Yes, and?" Masasane was confused.

"Don't you see the problem, sensei? Our team consists of the dead last of this year, the future Mr. Hokage, me, the officially weakest Kunoichi in the entire class, and an introverted wild card. As far as I can see, we are practically composed of the leftovers, sensei. Therefore, I am asking where is our allotted prodigy?" Asami crossed her arms and protested," So, where is our genius, Masasane?"

Probably right in front of them. After all, a certain someone here had deliberately tanked the graduation exam to be grouped with one of the higher graduating Genin. Ultimately, however, her little plan didn't produce the desired results, not to say failed completely.

Asami stole a short glance at her rather disappointing team mates. She had expected more. Not necessarily two all-powerful ultra-shinobi, but nevertheless more. Istead, she was now stuck with them for the next years.

Masasane scratched his head, "Well, there is certainly some truth in your words, Asami. But I am sure the Hokage had surely something in mind when he formed this team, hopefully."

"I typically defer to better judgement, sensei. But I hope you realise that the Hokage is only a human and not a god despite his nickname" God of shinobi". In my opinion, it wouldn't be entirely impossible that the Hokage simply made a mistake in this case", Asami gave him a blank look. Seriously, what was up with all these brainwashed shinobi and their blind obedience? Hogake-sama here, Hokage-sama there, Hokage-sama everywhere.

"Right, right, I know. Nevertheless, I think that the Hokage can serve as role model of how an ideal shinobi is supposed to be", Masasane countered enthusiastically and with sparkling eyes full of admiration, which cost quickly him all of his remaining standing.

"Anyway, your little composition won't matter in the end, Asami-chan, if you all don't pass the following test", Masasane produced two bells from his pocket and proudly showed them his students as if they were a sacrosanct relic of immense importance.

"Your task is relatively simple, to pass you have just to get these two bells from me within a certain time limit. And when you don't have one at the end, then you will fail and I will send you back to academy for an extra year", Masasane's friendly attitude was suddenly gone and replaced by a more serious tone. Asami rolled her eyes and ignored his abysmal acting skills. He tried really hard to scare her, but it didn't work for obvious reasons.

"Any questions?"

"No questions? Then we will start now", Masasane looked at his wrist watch and started the test.

And to Asami's surprise, his first action consisted of idiotically standing around directly in front of them and baiting them to attack him. In conclusion, it was a trap, and a fairly obvious one too. A trap that that every idiot should recognise … Correction, not every idiot.

The head strong Aritame charged and attacked head on. Logically, he was dispatched pretty easily by a vastly superior Masasane. Yukihiro attempted a sneak attack on him and failed as expected miserably.

Asami shook her head in disappointment. Their attacks were clearly futile like everything else the duo threw at the Jonin. Whether it was a kick, punch, kunai, or a shuriken, it didn't particularly matter. All in all, there was a reason why both Aritame and Yukihiro were at the bottom of the class.

They were by no means lazy. They simply weren't blessed with abundant natural talent and the necessary background. As a consequence, Aritame and Yukihiro were weak by all standards imaginable. Because the hard truth was that not everyone was destined to become a powerful shinobi. Powerful shinobi weren't made by hard work, they were in fact born. In the end, hard work alone wasn't enough and life wasn't particularly fair. Instead, you had to be born lucky. You had to be born with a lot of Chakra, a powerful Kekkei Genkai, or overwhelming talent. Otherwise, you were ultimately useless.

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In the meanwhile, Asami was leisurely sitting on the soft grass and watched this completely one-sided slaughter, the complete destruction. In summary, nothing too exciting. Her eyes followed her teammates movements from the left to the right, left, right, left, right, left, right.

Once again Aritame took a further hit and was knocked back. And once again the boy landed on the hard ground. "Ouch", Asami commented.

And once again Aritame stood up only to be knocked out a few seconds afterwards. This wasn't funny, this was a tragedy. Perhaps she should help Aritame and Yukihiro a bit? Because as far as she could tell, they didn't stand a chance even in a million years and they could really need her support.

Their team work was improveable to say the least. No proper coordination, no discipline, no formation, nothing. While Yukihiro was more of a conservative type, Aritame seemed to fulfil the role of the classical assault element and the only thing he was good at was running his head against the wall again, and again, and again. Asami sighed. Apparently, muscles were required, but intelligence not essential

But unfortunately for them, Asami wasn't really interested in intervening because she was currently pondering about the two bells and their purpose. And not because she was secretly vindictive and wanted to see Aritame getting trashed a few more times. Yes, he should suffer.

What the real purpose behind the two stupid bells? What was their real practical function? Asami doubted that the part about sending them back to the academy was true. In her opinion, it was merely an empty threat … No, it had to be an empty threat. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any shinobi in the village. Because it was relatively unlikely that the majority of the official could have ever passed this test, or rather it was de facto impossible to get one of these bells under normal circumstances. No freshly graduated Genin should be even able scratch a fully-fledged Jonin, not to mention defeat them. In conclusion, the bells were a ruse and test wasn't really designed to evaluate their combat prowess nor their abilities. But what then? What did their sensei want from them?

While Asami was thinking, and thinking, and thinking, and didn't come to any solution, Masasane gave her an angry stare full of disappointment and disdain.

Asami furrowed her eyebrow and reciprocated with her own schooled glare. What was Masasane thinking? What had she done to offend him? Because she didn't interfere? Because she didn't waste her energy to capture two stupid bells? So, why was he staring …

Seriously, how could she be so stupid? The answer was so simple and obvious, the whole test was just a matter of plain old teamwork. Asami broke out in laughter and facepalmed, "Thank you, sensei, without your help it would have taken me longer to finally figure it out."

Confident and primarily proud as ever, Asami strode forwards and smirked," Aritame, Yukihiro, get your damned asses up. Playtime is over, lads. Because the cavalry is here."

Asami drew her trusted blade and pointed her sharp steel towards her visibly surprised sensei, "So, what are you waiting for, the second coming of Hashirama, or what?" Aritame and Yukihiro were still lying on the ground. They were tired, beaten and their mouths were agape.

"What?" Asami focused her irritated eyes on both. Her glare worked and Yukihiro gulped visibly, "No, no, no, nothing."

"That's wonderful. And now please get up and take your positions, we don't have all day. After all, we still have a fight to win and a sensei to beat", Asami smiled happily and approached Masasane together with her blade. She hoped her sensei loved swords as much as her.

"No."

Asami stopped and tilted her head," What did you say again, Aritame?"

"I said no. No, I won't stand up", Aritame ground his teeth," Because I certainly won't follow you, you stuck up ice princess. I know exactly, you think you are better than us with your high and mighty attitude, don't you?"

"You are correct, Aritame", Asami giggled amused," Yes, you can say that I am a stuck up ice princess and I won't deny it. But to be fair, I care little about your opinion and what you think about me, Aritame. And yes, you are right, I think I am better than you to a degree you can't even grasp in your wildest dreams. And based on your earlier performance, I can conclude that I am definitely better than you by a wide margin. And now move, before I decide to personally kick your ass, Aritame."

"And why do you think you can order me and Yukihiro around?" Aritame avoided her gaze. She was smaller than him and she was girl. But Asami could be really scary and her black eyes made him feel uncomfortable.

"Why? Why? Because of seniority in years, experience, and because I am the boss here, Aritame, capisc? And now get moving and show me that you aren't completely useless."

Under Asami's leadership and command, they attacked with success. After the time limit had ended, three exhausted Genin were on the hard ground of training ground no. 3. However, a certain girl among them was only pretending and smiled.

Because in the end, Asami held two wonderful bells in her hand. A bit of coordination and getting them was actually not that difficult. Especially, when she used a tiny bit of Chakra to boost her speed. She didn't forget Masasane's lovely dumbfounded face when she snatched the bells away from him right before his eyes. This was a victory.

"Aritame, Yukihiro, Asami, stand up and please come over", Masasane sighed. He was defeated, but how? How did that happen? Everything was going fine until Asami suddenly got her tiny hands on the bells a few seconds before time was up. Seriously, how did she do that? After all, he was a Jonin and he wasn't actually supposed to lose. Yes, he planned to let them pass anyway, but he certainly didn't plan to let them win.

Aritame and Yukihiro were visibly depressed and finally got up.

Masasane laughed uneasily and tried to forget his own blunder," The good news first, despite the fact that your overall teamwork is improvable and certain female members of the team could be less obnoxious and toxic, you have all passed. Congratulations, you are all official Genin of Konohagakure."

Aritame looked dumbfounded," What, really? But why? We didn't get the bells …"

"That's not exactly true", Asami smiled and presented proudly two ringing bells.

Aritame's eyes went wide and he looked at the girl in a completely new light," How?"

Asami tilted her head," Let's say that's a secret."

Masasane cleared his throat," Anyway, now we come to your individual evaluation. Asami, as far as I can tell, your Taijutsu is excellent for your age group together with your Kenjutsu. I am wondering, Asami, how you managed to scored so low at the academy with such huge potential? Did you tank the exam deliberately, or what?"

" No, no, no, why should I do that?" Asami shook her head and denied these completely unfounded accusations. After all, she was an honest person and she wouldn't never do something like that.

"Sure", Masasane remained sceptical. Something was definitely wrong with the girl.

"Whatever, Aritame, you are next. Most of your attacks are suboptimal to say the least. It is painfully obvious that you attack without any kind of plan and your main strategy consists of landing a lucky punch. But at least, you have a lot motivation and fire in you."

"And you Yukihiro. Compared to Aritame, you actually think before attacking. What you lack, however, is the necessary brute force and a certain amount of healthy aggressiveness like our little princess here", Masasane stole a glance at Asami and her dangerously sharp blade that wasn't only decoration.

"So, any questions?" Masasane concluded his rudimentary after action review, "No? Well, then come with me. I still have to show you something."

 **༻** **༺**

The team followed Masasane and arrived at a black monolithic granite shaped like a kunai and covered by hundreds and hundreds of names. It was a memorial.

"Do you know what this stone stands for, Aritame, Yukihiro, Asami?" Masasane stared at the stone.

Aritame and Yukihiro shook their heads and Masasane murmured pensively," I see. Never mind, forget it." Some day they would know.

"Whatever, I still have to designate a team leader among you, someone who will take command if necessary. But don't worry, it is more of a ceremonial and formal thing."

Masasane smiled," And I appoint Aritame as my second in command. I hope you will make for a good team leader in the future."

"What?!" Asami cried out in horror shock still processing what she heard. This wasn't a joke, he meant what he said seriously. Masasane had seriously appointed Aritame instead of her. Had Masasane lost his mind? This was madness, absolute madness, she wouldn't put Aritame even in charge of her coffee machine.

Masasane turned his head, "Apparently, you don't agree with my decision, Asami. What's the problem?"

"With all due respect, sensei, I fail to understand the reasons behind your rather questionable and rather dubitable choice. Because I don't think Aritame possesses the required qualities to occupy this rather complex position", Asami ground her teeth. She was angry and she felt betrayed. Because she had been robbed of what was supposed to be rightfully hers.

Instead, Masasane had chosen the personified incompetence over her. She who was the better choice by all standards. She who had earned this position. In summary, Masasane's decision was inacceptable.

"And I suppose you think you are a more suitable candidate for this position, don't you?" he was waiting for her anwser

Suitable my ass. She wasn't just suitable, she was the only sensible candidate. Asami glared at Masasane, "It wasn't explicitly stated, sensei, but I think, it was heavily implied so."

Masasane sighed, "I knew that you would oppose my decision, Asami."

"Oh, yes, surprisingly unexpected, isn't it, Masasane?" the girl added sarcastically.

He set his eyes on the nearby memorial, "I am well aware that from a purely technical standpoint you would be indeed the better team leader. You lack something important, however."

"And that would be, sensei? What do I lack? What does Aritame apparently have what I don't?" her voice was filled by her rage. Underneath her skin, her purple chakra was boiling.

"Asami, you know what this stone is, don't you?"

Asami controlled her emotions, "Yes, a memorial obviously. And? "

Masasane nodded, "Do you see the names? These are all the names of the men and women that have died for Konoha."

"And what has that to do with me, sensei?"

"That's exactly the reason why I didn't select you, Asami. As said before, you lack something important, you lack the conviction, the ideals all these shinobi have fallen for. In you, Asami, doesn't burn the will of fire. A fire that grants us unimaginable strength to protect our friends and loved ones. Instead, in you I see only emptiness. Therefore, I have chosen Aritame. He may not be the best choice at the moment, but I believe in him and his will of fire."

"Aritame has great potential and I am sure he will eventually surpass you and achieve more than you ever will, Asami", Masasane ended his speech and everyone fell silent except for a certain Uchiha.

 **.**

 **.**

Asami couldn't hold it anymore and broke out in laughter. Surpass her? Did he really say surpass **her**? Did Masasane really believe all this will of fire bullshit?

Asami continued giggling and greeted the Jonin with a derisive and dismissive smirk," So, you want to tell me, Masasane, you forwent the rational and logical decision in favour of a purely emotional one. So, you want to tell me that I am not eligible for the position because I don't believe in the childish power of friendship and love. Because I don't believe in this superstitious nonsense."

"You are fool, Masasane, a fool, a big liar telling us the old lie. Masasane, you deceive us with your fairy tales of the will of fire. But I won't accept that, I will call you out and your stupidity."

"In the end, your hollow ideals, Masasane, are no substitution for real power and brute force. What can your friendship do against indisputable power? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Your precious love and friendship are useless. Ultimately, they won't save you or anyone. Your will of fire won't deflect an kunai, won't shield you from an explosive tag, and won't stop a Ninjutsu. Power, power alone can achieve all of this and so much more", Asami shook her head and left.

"Asami, hey, you can't go now", he tried to salvage the situation, but it was already too late.

Asami was furious, "For your information, Masasane, I don't need your permission for anything. Because I go **wherever** and especially **whenever** I want."

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* * *

"So, how was your first day as a Jonin-sensei, Masasane?" the Hokage smiled started with a bit of classical small talk. Masasane requested his help and Hiruzen the ever-helpful and kind man he was couldn't refuse.

Behind them, the sun set giving the room a solemn and heavy atmosphere. Gradually, all light disappeared and was slowly replaced by shadow and darkness.

Masasane scratched his head, "To be honest, I have come here because I have a little issue with my assigned team, or rather with a certain member, Minami Asami. And I don't know what I should do about her, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen nodded, "Tell me, Masasane, what's the problem?"

Masasane was clearly at loss, "Well, how shall I put it? Let's say, Asami's character is a bit difficult and she didn't react that well to my choice about our team leader."

"I suspect you didn't pick her and she threw a tantrum, didn't she, Masasane?" the Hokage took a puff on his pipe and smiled amused.

Masasane was surprised, "Yes, but …"

"How do I know that? Because I can understand her to a certain degree, Masasane", Hiruzen exhaled a nebulous cloud of smoke," Asami reminds me a bit of a former student of mine, only that she is even slier than him."

Student? Slier? Masasane was confused," What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen laughed," Tell me, Masasane, how much do you know about our little mysterious Asami?"

Was this a trick question? He furrowed his eyebrow, "Not much aside from what was written in her Genin and background report. In short, I only know the absolute basics, her name, birthdate, that she had lost her entire family during an attack three years ago. And according to her academy files, she suffers since then from some kind of trauma that probably hampers her development and caused a sharp decline of her previously exceedingly good abilities after the incident."

"A trauma? Perhaps if she was a normal girl, but Asami is neither normal nor traumatized by anything. In my opinion, Asami is probably only simulating and keeping a low profile", Hiruzen smiled, "And to tell the truth, Masasane, I assigned Asami to your team because I had to keep the overall distribution of strength among the new Genin teams balanced."

"Balanced?" Masasane gave the Hokage a confused look. What was he talking about?

"Masasane, you should have certainly noticed that you have got in your team 7 literally the worst academy graduates of the entire year, Aritame, Yukihiro and Asami. Don't you think that this isn't an unusual pairing considering our standard method of assembling Genin teams?"

"Well, I also thought the same at the beginning, but I let it be, Hokage-sama. Team is team and I can't change the composition anyway."

"True, true", Hiruzen laughed and leaned back in his chair," Anyway, what I tell you now is more or less classified material, but I think you deserve it. After all, Asami is a part of your team and you should be at least aware of that the composition of your team wasn't really a coincidence."

"As you said before, Asami lost her family 3 years ago during an attack. However, what you probably don't know, Masasane, is that we were unable to arrest the attackers because they were eliminated before we arrived", Hiruzen explained, "And as far as we know, the three attackers were probably at least Jonin level. Nevertheless, they were killed in direct combat and the only survivor we found afterwards was a little girl. So, who do you think killed them, Masasane?"

Masasane fell silent and stared at the Hokage, "Is that true? Did she really kill …"

Hiruzen took a puff on his pipe and exhaled the smoke," Asami is strong, extremely strong, and you shouldn't forget that, Masasane."

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"I see", Masasane sighed," I think I will take my leave then, Hokage-sama."

He left and the sun finally set. The remaining light receded and a well-known friend entered the room instead.

Hiruzen looked up, "Danzo, don't you know that eavesdropping on someone isn't particularly. Especially, when the person in question is the Hokage. So, how much did you hear, old friend?"

Accompanied by his cane, Danzo walked forwards, "Enough, Hiruzen, enough. Enough to tell that I am interested in this girl named Asami. Don't you think that the girl belongs more to a place where her talent isn't wasted?"

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	13. Arc II Chapter V

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter V**

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Her daily morning shower was over and Asami left her bathroom.

In search for a fresh pair of clothes, the girl was striding delighted through her new home that was essentially her old home. It cost her a little fortune, but Asami rebuilt the mansion down to the smallest detail. Asami inspected her wardrobe and her collection was still visibly limited because the majority of her clothes were, let's say, lost that night. Fortunately, she still had a lot of clothes a few lovely pieces miraculously survived. Asami smiled and picked a kimono in her love for silk.

Suddenly, the bell rang and Asami was forced to open the door. In front of her, stood once again Aritame and he was visibly furious, but she didn't care. After all, what could he do? Report her to their sensei? Sure, sure, that was scary. No, instead the boy had somehow found out her address and kept visiting her on a daily basis to reprimanded her for her irresponsible, bla bla bla bla, behaviour.

She usually ignored him and told Aritame in the friendliest way possible to fuck off. Nevertheless, he didn't let discourage himself and appeared every morning to critize her increasing amount of absences from their team missions, which wasn't exactly true. It was just a few missions and 56 weren't that much, was it? And not forgetting, she had things to do with her time.

Asami rolled her eyes ad sighed, "Why are you here, Aritame, and what can I do for you? Do you want some tea, or biscuits?"

Aritame glared at her and he almost made her feel like she had actually done something wrong, "I am here to tell you that you have skipped again one of our team missions, Asami."

Asami scoffed amused," Yes, I know. And what is the problem, Aritame?"

He was angry," It isn't right, Asami. You can't just leave us alone …"

Asami shook her head in disappointment, "Isn't right? That is all you have to say? Then finally stop bothering me, Aritame. Because I have already done enough of these stupid missions for the rest of my entire life. One week of deliveries, idiotic task and catching unruly cats was enough. Aritame, I am done with this sort of shit and you can tell that our sensei. Tell him that he can call me when he had got a real mission worth my time and not this fucking D-rank crap!

And now get lost. Disappear immediately from my door step or I will kick your useless ass so fucking damn hard that you will learn how to fly", Asami slammed the door shut and Aritame trembled.

"She is really, really scary when angry", a cold shiver run down his spine and he quickly walked away.

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"Sensei, why are we even here? Asami didn't react all too friendly yesterday. So, why should she change her mind today?" Aritame was doubtful. He remembered yesterday and he was quite sure Asami would make her threats come true.

"Aritame, Yukihiro, you two are still young. However, you should know that every team has a few specific moments of crisis. They are challenges to be overcome and opportunities to grow stronger ", Masasane offered them some of typical cheap sensei standard phrases and hoped that it worked. Because Asami could be horribly stubborn as he had found out and they needed every bit of optimism they could get.

"I think too that it isn't a particularly good idea, sensei", Yukihiro shared Aritame's doubts, but Masasane marched forward without fear and approached the door of Asami's miniature palace. She really took my home is my castle rather literally in truest sense of the word. The mansion was big to say the least a lot of walking and many, many, many marble stairs later they had finally reached the door.

"Don't worry, Aritame, Yukihiro, what could happen in the worst case? Our little princess won't throw us into her personal dungeon, right? " Masane rang the doorbell and waited patiently.

Aritame gave him a deadpan look, "What could happen? One time she threatened me with mounting my head on a pike and place it right in front of the gate."

Masasane scratched his head and laughed innocently, "I think it was indented as a joke, probably. And shouldn't you know her by now? Most of the times, she can be a bit unfriendly and, let's say, confident, but she isn't a bad person per se. Yes, she can be a bit a difficult and stingy from times to times, but …",

"A bit difficult and stingy, huh? Don't you think that is a bit of an understatement, sensei. Normally, people are much more direct in their choice of vocabulary", Asami surprised him and Masasane froze.

Masasane slowly turned and smiled uneasily, "Asami, what a surprise … Have I ever told you that you have a really beautiful home?"

Asami furrowed an amused eyebrow, "No, you haven't, sensei. But don't think you can get away with just a bit of flattery. I have forgotten neither the difficult nor the stingy part. So, what do you want?"

"Was it that obvious?" Masasane scratched his head.

"Obvious? Do you think I am stupid, or what? You can try to flatter me when you are a few years older than me, Masasane", Asami smiled politely, "So, what do you want?"

"Look, I am here to invite you to a special team dinner this afternoon."

"A meal?"

"Yes, Asami, a meal."

"And what is the catch, sensei?"

"We will discuss there our next mission …"

The girl interrupted him giving him an annoyed stare, "Masasane, so, our relationship has already reached the point where you try to buy my attention with food? Seriously, food? Do you think I am that cheap? Did you really think you can buy me a gratis meal?"

He had fucked up, hadn't he? Masasane laughed uneasily, "Yes, more or less. Don't children normally like food or sweets?"

"Normally, yes, but not in this case. The next time you try to bribe me, sensei, bring some jewellery and it might even work, sensei", Asami had seen enough and slammed the door shut.

Masasane intercepted the door, however," Asami, nevertheless, I think there might be a good reason why you should reconsider my offer."

"And that would be, sensei?"

"You know, the reason I am inviting all of you is that I want to celebrate that we will soon undertake our first C-Rank mission", he smiled friendly and prayed that he finally got her out of her bunker.

 **.**

 **.**

" Touché, Masasane, touché, I know when I have to admit defeat", the girl inspected him critically and sighed," So, when and where is this special team meal then?"

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* * *

Asami and her team entered the mission debriefing room. It was a spartan room, or a shabby room as some might call it. Behind the wooden table was sitting the Hokage like on a throne flanked on both sides by two underpaid Chunin.

"Ah, I see, team 7. So, you are here to get finally your first real mission as full-fledged shinobi", Hiruzen looked up and ignored the giant pile of documents in front of him. He greeted the Genin with his typical smile.

"Yes, Hokage-sama, they are all ready and eager to prove themselves", Masasane added pleased.

Hiruzen laughed, "That is good, it is important to have a youth full of energy. And I am especially delighted to detect among your team that I haven't seen someone specific for quite some time after she had decided to skip all of her assigned missions. Asami, would you care to explain yourself?"

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and Asami was unsure what should she do now, lying, telling the truth, or a mixture of both.

The girl beamed innocently and reported in a serious voice, "No, not at all, Hokage-sama. I was practically rendered combat ineffective for a short amount of time by all the accumulated fatigue. Because I didn't expect that the assigned D-rank missions would be so mentally taxing due to their inherent difficult nature.

However, I should be operational again after recuperating for a few months from this unexpectedly strenuous experience, Hokage-sama."

The present Chunin dropped their pencils and stared at her angrily as if she had committed right now an open sacrilege while the rest of the team stood uncomfortable next to her resisting the onslaught of angry glares thrown at them. Asami, however, didn't understand what she had done wrong? The Hokage had a question and she had given him a sarcastic answer.

Hiruzen took a puff on his pipe and started laughing, "Hahahaha, that is surely one of the more creative ways I heard over the years to describe the fact that D-rank missions are probably the most boring stuff on earth. And to be honest, I also thought the same when I was young. I remember, I couldn't wait until I finally got a real mission and not this stupid waste of time Genin stuff."

"I am pleased to meet your expectations in that regard and to get my point across. Yes, they are boring, horribly boring to be exact, and they aren't exactly challenging, Hokage-sama", Asami openly voiced her discontent," Especially, not for me, Hokage-sama. Because I think you know best that I am decidedly overqualified for this kind of missions."

The Hokage contemplated for a few seconds and eventually agreed. "Yes, you are probably right, Asami, someone like you might be indeed overqualified."

"Anyway, I will assign you now your new mission, Asami, and I hope you won't be disappointed this time", Hiruzen grabbed a file and presented it to the team," As far as I know, this mission shouldn't be that difficult. Your task is to accompany an Iwa merchant and escort him and his caravan to back Iwagakure."

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* * *

Aritame, Yukihiro and Masasane had already gathered at the village gate. Both Genin were equipped relatively lightly for such a long journey, which didn't stand out as much as it normally should, however, because their sensei Masasane didn't carry that much too. And both Genin excited as well as motivated and were prepared to finally move out, but at the moment they were forced to wait. Yes, they were waiting for their client as well as a certain girl that was rather late and nowhere to be seen.

"That is really atypical for her. Normally, she is always punctual", Masasane observed. He suspected this was some kind of revenge for them being late back then.

Aritame crossed his arms and complaint, "Perhaps she has spent too much in front of a mirror …"

The boy was interrupted by an unknown hand tipping his shoulder and a giggling girl," Almost, Aritame, almost. I might be considered a bit vain, but that isn't the main reason for my tardiness. So, what did you say again, Aritame? A mirror?"

The red haired boy slowly turned his head. And as expected, he was greeted by a smiling Asami. In his opinion, a smiling Asami was definitely the most frightening version of her. Because if she was smiling, then she had in 99% of cases something evil in mind and was planning to made you suffer. However, not this time, today her mood was just relatively good.

"Seriously, how do you do that, appearing always out of nowhere at the worst timing possible. Are you sure you are not some kind of ghost, or what?" Aritame tried to touch the elusive girl to verify his theory. Because it would explain why he felt this inexplicable cold in her presence and why her black eyes made him always feel uncomfortable.

He was about to touch her chest, but before he got even close his fingers got whipped by her hand. Aritame inspected his aching hand," Ouch, what was that for?"

Asami ignored his question and still smiled, "Aritma, a Kunoichi should never reveal all of her secrets. Nevertheless, I can safely assure you that I have always a few tricks up my sleeves, and that includes how to sneak up on you."

With the conservation being over, the rest of her team could finally to take a better look at Asami and they couldn't believe their eyes.

Because it wouldn't be the first time that Masasane was asked much to his annoyance whose daughter his team was escorting through the village and which rich family Asami was from.

And it absolutely didn't help that in such a situation Asami was deliberately referring to them with a big smile as her "trusted aides and servants". However, today Asami didn't wear any ostentatious clothes and she didn't play nobility as usual.

Instead of her long strands, her hair was now forcefully bound together by a surprising amount of hairpins. And instead of being clothed in silk, she was now clad in hardened iron, or a set of armour to be precise. A set of armour that reminded Masasane of the ones the ANBU had to the degree that her figure strongly resembled them. A very short ANBU without a mask, but nevertheless an ANBU. Was that a coincidence? Very unlikely and certainly not in Asami's case.

A pair of gauntlets covered her forearms, greaves her legs, and few extra pieces protected her shoulders and upper torso. Underneath her protecting steel, Asami was wearing her standard black tunic, while several pouches and scabbard were attached to her hip together with a few scrolls on her back.

In summary, Asami seemed slightly out of place compared to the rest of the team. They were prepared for a longer camping trip, while Asami was effectively geared for war.

"Ehm, what is this?" Masasane inspected Asami's current travelling gear.

Asami tilted her head, "Sensei, didn't you said that we should prepare ourselves as much as possible?"

"Yes, I did, but … And what is in these storage scrolls on your back, Asami?"

"Nothing, only the rest of my equipment, tents, sleeping bags, rations and a battalion's worth of explosive tags and kunai", Asami smiled proudly.

"So, you are carrying enough weaponry to start a small war?" the sensei stared at her incredulously.

"No, no, actually not that much. The term battalion's worth was just an exaggeration", Asami deflected his accusation with a wave of her hand, but Masasane didn't believe her even a second.

Aritame analysed Asami and her attire, "I thought you would be more princess-like on your first mission, Asami. You know, with a bit of imagination, you almost look like a shorter version of my Madara figurine in your armour. Have you by any chance a Sharingan too?"

Asami learned that even the dead weren't safe from commercialisation and dope slapped Aritame despite the fact that being compared to the Uchiha patriarch didn't feel actually that bad. It really didn't feel that bad.

While Aritame was rubbing his head, Asami rolled her eyes," Don't be stupid, Aritame, there are times when you can fool around, when the representational element is more important and you can opt for the princess style."

"And there are times when you have to emphasize the practical aspect instead of the decorative. And to answer your question, no, I don't have a Sharingan."

"Ouch, but that would be so fucking cool. Imagine how effective your death glare would be with a Sharingan. Our foes would tremble at your mere sight, Asami-sama", Aritame fantasised.

The fact that his words didn't immediately earn him a hefty kick in his stomach because such an act was beneath her dignity was a sign how far the relationship between her and her team had already progressed.

The Iwa merchant arrived later one and team 7 eventually left the village. And according to the two Chunin stationed at the gate, they were apparently the third team within this day that left for Iwagakure. An interesting coincidence, wasn't it?

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	14. Arc II Chapter VI

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter VI**

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The days were going by and team seven was marching through a seemingly endless forest, which was rather typical for the Land of Fire with its overall sylvatic nature.

Accompanied by their mysterious merchant and his employees, the group steadily progressed and after a week of unrelenting marching they finally reached Konoha's northern border.

Therefore, it was decided they should camp outside instead of visiting a nearby town. Masasane called them to plan their future route with their employer.

Aritame and Yurihiko didn't care much about what was going on, but that wasn't the case for a suspicious Asami. She was listening attentively because she didn't trust this so-called merchant for even a second.

Her instincts and her paranoia warned her, something was wrong here, very, very wrong, but she couldn't tell exactly what. It was just an annoying, itching feeling in the beginning. Nevertheless, it was growing stronger with every day passing.

Little details, little inconsistencies kept piling up everywhere. For example, why did this merchant and all of his friends possess without exception abnormal high Chakra levels on par with battle hardened Chunin? They concealed their Chakra well, but she could sense their signature very clearly.

Why did they all carry concealed weapons? Why did they always look around to scan the area? Because it was obvious that these people weren't only there to admire the wonderful flora and fauna of the Land of Fire. The question was, however, what were they searching for?

"Masasane, I think we should not take the route through Kusagakure. Instead, I would recommend you to go through Amegakure,", the merchant proposed.

Asami was sure, 99.99% at least, that he wasn't a real merchant and Mitsuoki was not his true name.

So, what was he planning? Why did he to avoid Kusagakure? From a logical standpoint, Kusa was the shortest and most direct way. Instead, he opted for the long way around by choosing to go by the way of Amegakure. Why did he do that?

Generally, the way they were moving could be considered relatively strange because most of the time they chose to travel on backroads. But Mitsuoki couldn't fool her and Asami suspected he was trying to make any known form of tracking as difficult as possible.

They never stayed in the same place for very long, always on the move and they avoided any classical crossroads and towns. In conclusion, these people weren't just harmless travelling merchants. They were Iwa shinobi in disguise and they were using her team as cover.

The question was, however, why they were disguised in the first place? What was their reason for their cover? And who was the enemy? Asami needed answers and she wanted them as soon as possible.

"Well, if you think so, Mitsuoki, in that case we should go …"

Asami narrowed her eyes and interrupted Masasane, "Mitsuoki, why do you want to take the, how shall I put it, the panoramic route?"

"Don't you think that, Kusagakure would be way, way, way, way faster, and primarily more economical. You shouldn't forget that you are paying us per hour, Mitsuoki, albeit I have personally nothing against the idea of you wasting your money."

"Don't worry about the money, I am only planning to visit a few business partners along the way. And I heard that Ame should prove to be an interesting place this time of the year. Apparently, it is always raining there." Mitsuoki smiled.

"I don't doubt your ability to remunerate us accordingly, Mitsuoki. Instead, I am more interested in this visiting part. Do you mean by any chance the sort of visiting might resemble what we are doing right now? Leading us along the most remote places, just about as far away from any form of civilization as possible?" Asami glared at the merchant. She didn't particularly care about when it comes to risking his own life, but he should kindly refrain from endangering the lives of her team as well.

"I think you should reconsider your profession and instead found a natural research group together with your entourage,", Asami cornered him. She would get her answers even if she had to personally mince him ...

"Asami, this is enough. Stop bothering our client. Don't you see that you are being impolite?" Masasane intervened and called her back.

"But I was only trying to give Mitsuoki a new perspective in regards to his chosen metier,", Asami defended herself.

"No, stop now,", Masasane finally had enough. He couldn't ignore further that Asami was constantly undermining his authority at every turn. He was the team's Jonin and their sensei, not she.

In the end, Asami had to admit defeat, grudgingly retracting her metaphorical fangs.

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* * *

Their conversation was over shortly afterwards and everyone was about to leave the tent.

"Masasane, can I have some of your time? I have something which might be important to speak with you about,", Asami asked kindly, but the demanding and commanding tone in her voice wasn't lost on the Jonin.

Masasane turned, "Yes, what's the matter, Asami?"

Asami was standing in the middle of the tent and let a few seconds pass before speaking. "Masasane, what I want to ask you is this, haven't you yourself also noticed all the little inconsistencies in Mitsuoki's merchant story."

Masasane furrowed an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Apparently, he hadn't. Asami sighed, "Don't you think it is strange that we are generally avoiding all major population centres and main roads, only to wander aimlessly throughout the lands? Don't you think it is strange that Mitsuoki often decides to suddenly take a little detour? Don't you think it is strange that despite their being merchants, we haven't seen them trading with anyone?"

"Well, initially, I thought along the same lines. But as a Jonin, I am already used to such things. Missions can often become strange in my experience. So, what is on your mind, Asami?"

"The problem is, sensei, that our merchants are obviously trying to avoid being discovered by someone."

"And? That is not uncommon. Some people simply appreciate secrecy and anonymity,", Masasane countered.

"This is not a case of simple secrecy, Masasane. Didn't you hear the two Chunin speaking back at the main gate? Didn't you hear how they were discussing this little interesting detail that we were the third group leaving that day for the Iwagakure?" Asami narrowed her eyes. She was annoyed because Masasane ignored all her concerns. He obviously didn't take her seriously.

"I fail to see why that should be relevant?" Masasane was confused.

"Don't you see it? Who were these groups before us, Masasane? What did the guards say again?" Asami glared at him. It was his duty to protect them and not the other way around.

"Yes, yes, wait a moment. The second group was escorting a wealthy lord. The first group's mission was to look after a convoy consisting of high-ranking Iwa diplomats and their shinobi guards …", Masasane stopped as realisation struck him.

"You don't think?" He stared at Asami and asked for confirmation.

"That we were tricked and that we are just a part of their merchant cover. Yes, I think so, Masasane. I have no definite evidence yet, but I suspect we are possibly escorting the real Iwa dignitaries, while the other two groups are acting as mere decoys to distract potential attackers. So, what do you think, sensei?" Asami observed her sensei as she was waiting for an answer.

A small candle was placed nearby and illuminated the tent, but its flame grew weaker and weaker with every passing second. In the end, the flame succumbed and died.

Masasane sighed and gave Asami a doubting look, "Asami, in my opinion, you are simply overthinking things. Sure, sure, there are some strange coincidences here and there and your little theory seems plausible at first sight, but plausibility doesn't equal true. In short, you are seeing enemies where none exist, Asami."

"So you don't believe me?" Asami gaped. Once again her advice was carelessly dismissed.

"No, not exactly. Look, everything you have told me now is more or less speculation. And like you said, you have no evidence to back up your claim. Therefore, don't feel bad if I am a bit sceptical, Asami." Masasane smiled and tried to dispel her doubts.

"But don't worry, Asami, you can trust me. After all, I am not exactly the weakest Jonin that Konoha has to offer and there is a reason why I was assigned to be your sensei. You can count on me, Asami."

"Anyway, thank you for informing me of your suspicions. I will keep your warnings in mind", Masasane disappeared and Asami was left alone. She was visibly angry and clenched her fist.

"Yes, I hope so, Masasane", Asami ground her teeth.

"Because it is not my survival I am worried about." He didn't hear the last part, but she didn't care. She had done everything within her power.

Asami observed the candle which had suddenly sprang to life again. The flame had returned, but the flame was tiny, weak, neglected, lonely, insignificant. Asami took pity on the poor flame and decided to help. A happy girl nourished her little flame with her Chakra. Suddenly, the dying flame expanded and the fire turned a beautiful white and blue. She closed her eyes briefly and the flame gained immediately a more aggressive purple-bluish tone. Asami smiled and eventually stopped playing with the flame. She really loved fire and it loved her.

Eventually, the sun set and Asami crawled into her sleeping bag, trying to fall asleep, which didn't happen. Because someone, or rather something was watching them. Their mysterious observer was a black corvine creature hiding among the nearby trees. She could feel the stare and it wasn't difficult to locate the bird with her Sharingan. Fortunately, a kunai did the job and she could finally sleep peacefully without any further stupid crows disturbing her sleep.

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* * *

At the far end of the horizon, Asami could spot Amegakure's famous skyline consisting of steel and iron. There were numerous skyscrapers stretching as far as her eyes could see. The route which Mitsuoki had chosen led team seven directly through Ame. As expected, the ever-deluging rain would never end. It was raining, and raining, and raining, and the rain only stopped for a few seconds. But most of the time, it continued to rain, causing all in the convoy to be soaked wet. Well, not everyone shared this fate. Fortunately, Asami had brought a lovely black umbrella which protected her from the elements together with a very thin layer of Chakra.

What worried Asami was something more important than a small amount of water soaking her skin. There were two individuals who were following them ever since they had entered Amegakure. There wasn't any form of visual confirmation possible yet, because they were avoiding detection with great skill while diligently pursuing them.

Nevertheless, their enormous Chakra betrayed them, giving away their position. The duo stood out like a lighthouse, consequentially making locating them far easier.

"Ummmmmm", Asami grumbled, dissatisfied with the overall situation.

"Asami?"

"Yes, what is it, Aritame?" she shifted her umbrella on her shoulder.

Aritame wore a heavy raincoat like everyone else did and inspected their little princess,"I have a question, Asami. How is it possible that we are soaked wet, while you are completely dry, using only an umbrella and nothing else?"

"Just an umbrella?", Asami tilted her head.

"You might not know of it, Aritame, but this is a very, very, very special umbrella."

"A special umbrella?" Aritame gave her a blank stare. Obviously, he didn't believe her.

Asami smiled. " Yes, Aritame, a very special …"

Asami was distracted, because she noticed the incoming attack by a bare fraction of a second too late. Fortunately, she had enough time to react, or rather adopt defensive measures.

Equipped with an umbrella and a pair of Sharingan, Asami detected the incoming shuriken and kunai. She furrowed her eyebrow. Kunai? Shuriken, really? Her free right hand formed a seal and the moment she completed the Jutsu, her beloved Chakra obeyed her command and acted. Her purpled Chakra manifested in form of a protective barrier. In short, she did nothing overly complicated. Her shield stood firm against the assault, able to easily withstand the attack. The hail of shuriken and kunai clashed against her Chakra, but their effect was minimal. Metal sparked and the resulting clouds of dust filled the air, but they were safe.

Eventually, her shield dissipated and dissolved into a fine purple mist. Asami whispered happily to her luminescent particles,"Good work." But to be fair, she didn't expect anything else from her Chakra.

The layers of hardened Chakra had saved Aritame, Yukihiro and Masasane, but that couldn't be said for the rest of the convoy. The attack had subsided and the road was now a scene composed of carnage and gore. Limps and bodies had been thrown all about, lifeless and torn asunder. They carpeted the muddy ground, colouring it red with their blood. They were dead before they even knew what happened and none survived except for Asami and her team.

While Aritame and Yukihiro instinctually unholstered their kunai, Masasane interiorly panicked as he stared at the duo who had appeared from the surrounding fog. He recognized the enemy and his hand trembled. This was, this was …

Asami narrowed her eyes. This was going to be … interesting.

"It seems that tracking down the real ambassador took more time than expected, but apparently, they say the third time is the charm."

"But what is more interesting is the fact that not only your eyesight has started to deteriorate, but also your skills seem to have suffered, Itachi. I think perhaps you should consider to retire?" the Kiri-nin was clothed in black robes with red clouds.

"You know, you are no fun at all, Itachi", the Kiri-nin grinned as he addressed his taciturn partner.

She didn't recognize the swordsman, but she recognized his partner and because of that, she knew that this would be an ugly fight, a very ugly fight. Uchiha Itachi, ANBU, Uchiha, traitor and clan killer.

The rain was falling while Asami broke the following silence with a friendly smile, "Long time no see, Itachi. I hope time has treated you well."

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	15. Arc II Chapter VII

**II**

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 **Arc II Chapter VII**

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"Run", Asami whispered to her paralysed team while keeping an eye on her two opponents.

The current situation was definitely improvable and if Aritame, Yukihiro and Masasane wanted to survive, then they had to run, immediately. Because unfortunately, they were useless and it was unlikely that they would even survive the first few seconds of this fight with their capabilities. The enemy was without a doubt good.

"Long time no see? Itachi, who is this girl? Is she a long lost girlfriend you have never told me about, or what? You know, I have to say I am a bit hurt that you don't trust me with such an important secret. Because I really thought we were friends, Itachi", the Kiri-nin shook his head in disappointment.

"Run, you idiots", Asami whispered again. Why didn't they run? Didn't these idiots understand the severity of their situation? They were about to die.

"Kisame, I don't know this girl, nor have I ever seen her in my entire life. So, stop with this idiotic nonsense, Kisame", Itachi replied as stoically as ever, but what he said wasn't entirely true. He set his Sharingan on the girl to evaluate her. He didn't remember. Nevertheless, she seemed and looked … familiar.

Asami giggled amused beneath her umbrella and that gained their attention. The girl smiled and stalled further for time, "True, true, I never implied that we actually know each other, Itachi. Nevertheless, it saddens me that you have apparently forgotten me, even though we can be considered practically family. Because you might not remember me, but I certainly remember you. After all, I am a diligent observer and how could I forget such a funny person like you, Itachi?"

"And why would you describe me as a "funny person"?" Itachi focused his eyes on her and obviously ignored the family part. This girl was just … strange.

Kisame laughed, "You know, that's the first time I ever heard someone calling you funny, Itachi. Interesting, mysterious, antisocial, etc., sure, sure, but funny?"

Her tactic worked and both Itachi as well as Kisame began to visibly relax and let their guard down. Because they didn't take her team seriously, which wasn't particularly unreasonable considering their strength. They were confident, almost overconfident and victory was practically assured. But the duo also underestimated her, and that was a mistake, a huge mistake on their part.

"Yes, Kisame, funny, but not necessarily that normal kind of funny. The gape that I got from him during our first brief encounter was priceless."

Asami waved her hand and was armed with a suave smile. Her actions confused them and for the last time she whispered to her petrified team.

But this time, Asami was significantly pissed off and she didn't care anymore about subtlety. "Run, for the last time, run, you fucking idiots, or do you want to die?"

Asami's hand curled around her sword's hilt and she prepared herself. "I will try to occupy them to buy you as much time as possible. So, what are you waiting for? Run, run for your lives."

Seriously, it would make her life so much easier if they just retreated and didn't annoy her anymore. Aritame, Yukihiro and Masasane were a burden, a massive burden in this particular fight, and she had to get rid of them immediately. She needed all of her Chakra, all of her power, all of her concentration to defeat the pair. What she didn't need, however, was dead weights like them. Because she was certain that even Masasane would only get in the way when she got serious.

Masasane paled as he realised the full hopelessness of their situation and cold sweat was running down his face. It was obvious to anyone that they stood no chance against them in a direct fight and they wouldn't see another day. This wasn't some nameless shinobi, this was Uchiha Itachi. In short, their death was only a matter of time.

Masasane glanced at Asami and he visibly was unsure. So, should they follow her advice and leave her alone to die? Could he really allow her to sacrifice herself for them? No, he couldn't, but on the other hand … Asami was stronger, way stronger than he had suspected. Because the purple shield was hers and she had protected them easily where he had failed. Perhaps Asami could really delay them …

However, Aritame crossed her wonderful plans and the idiot stood his ground. He gripped his kunai and marshaled all of his courage,"Asami, we won't run, we won't leave you here alone. A true Konoha shinobi never abandons a comrade."

Damn Konoha and their fucking 'leave no one behind' policy. Asami ground her teeth, but she still kept smiling despite being severely tempted to beat the shit out of Aritame right now and right here.

"Have you gone mad, Aritame? Don't you see that only death awaits all of you here? Therefore, do what I say and run, run for your miserable lives." Asami lost her patience and glared at her team with an intensity they had never seen before.

Aritame felt her glare and her ominous eyes made him shiver, but he didn't waver. His conviction was stronger than ever before, "NO!"

"Yes, you will!"

"No!" Yukihiro also stepped in.

Asami couldn't take it anymore and her eyes were shimmering in a dangerous shade of red, "No, you both shut the fuck up now and you will do exactly as I have told you!"

"Sorry, but playtime is over, kids." Kisame was close and he grinned. He thought he had got her, but that was obviously wrong. He needed more than a mere surprise attack.

Following her instincts, Asami flipped backwards and avoided the incoming strike with natural ease. However, that couldn't be said for her teammates.

It was a careless mistake of hers and she realised too late her error. Kisame's attack was just a diversion and the four shuriken in the air were a testament of her failure. She shouldn't have evaded. Instead, she should have blocked.

Masasane parried the swordsman's blow with a kunai, but they were essentially finished. He couldn't move, he couldn't do anything. The shuriken were fast, accurate, deadly and they hit. Three of the shuriken hit, while the fourth, which was probably intended for her, missed her miserably and instead struck the ground.

And three bodies fell over. Masasane died almost instantly. His cervical artery was severed and Yukihiro met a similar fate. Aritame, however, survived, albeit barely. Unable to breathe and plagued by excruciating pain, Aritame coughed up more and more blood. His lungs were punctured by shuriken.

Kisame retreated and rejoined his partner in crime. He grinned and showed his teeth.," Looks like you aren't all bark and no bite. I have to admit you have a modicum of skill and my interest, girl. So, what's your name?"

"My name? I will kill you assholes for what you have done before I give you my name", Asami spat angrily and discarded her beloved umbrella. Marching forward amidst the falling rain, the girl drew her sword. Without hesitation, she plunged her steel into Aritame's throat and shortly after he fell silent.

Kisame shook his head in mock disappointment., "That was vicious even for my standards. And I always thought killing your comrades was a no-go in Konoha."

Asami glared furiously at them, "Don't act stupid, he wouldn't have survived anyway. I have only accelerated the process and spared myself from watching him suffering."

The girl gazed at their corpses and again felt the pain of loss and grief. Asami closed her eyes and lit them on fire. A ghostly purple flame slowly turned the bloodied bodies into ash and the funeral pyres illuminated the area. Asami stared at her beautiful fire and her flame kept burning and burning and burning until nothing remained. The minutes passed by and eventually her flames were extinguished by the rain. Aritame, Yukihiro and Masasane were now history.

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"Then how do we proceed?" Asami dedicated her undivided attention to her two enemies. They would pay for this and she would make them pay.

"This is the part where we normally kill little girls like you.", Kisame grinned as the grip of his sword crawled about his body," And even my sword seems to like you and your Chakra. Samehada is really excited to meet you."

"We will see, we will see, because I doubt that you will succeed", Asami giggled dangerously and narrowed her hate-filled eyes.

"And why?" Itachi commented amused. The girl was proud and her hubris would be her downfall.

A terrifying maniac laughter filled the air and the girl grinned in ecstasy., "You are neither the first, nor will you be the last trying to kill me. They all have failed so far and you will fail too. Because I will kill you first."

Asami took a deep breath and formed a seal.

Itachi and Kisame reacted immediately and sprang aside before an azure avalanche of fire nearly roasted them alive and everything nearby to its path. The duo couldn't pause, however, because the girl was apparently trying to incinerate the entire land together with them. The entire forest was set ablaze and fell victim to a sea of all devouring flames, fire and destruction. Everything was burning and nothing should remain.

Kisame observed the nightmarish scene together with his partner and he could feel the scorching heat on his skin even from afar. He laughed and was mildly impressed, "Itachi, the girl has some hot tricks up her sleeve, hasn't she?"

Itachi remained silent," I suppose she really has talent for Katon."

"True, true," Kisame merely nodded while inspecting his singed clothes. His coat had received a few scorch marks for free. The girl was definitely dangerous.

Suddenly, the blue flames parted and made way for her. And there appeared their little fiery princess surrounded by her infernal fire which accompanied the steps of their goddess.

Itachi furrowed an eyebrow, "Interesting, it seems that she can somehow remotely control and shape her fire."

"So, it is similar to your Amaterasu, then?" Kisame joked.

"Not really, but there are certainly … similarities." Uncanny similarities.

"Didn't you say you would kill me, Kisame? So, why are you running from me then? Are empty threats all you have to offer me?" Asami tilted her head and clearly enjoyed the feeling of total superiority.

"You know, I said killing, not being fried. And no, we aren't running, we are just regrouping." Kisame formed a seal and initiated his attack.

A variety of sharks made from water shot forward, but they didn't come close to Asami. A blue explosion intercepted them mid-air and the heat evaporated his Suiton filling the entire area with a cloud of boiling steam.

That didn't work out as expected. Kisame clicked his tongue, "Itachi, I have a feeling this battle won't go as easily as expected …"

"I hope so." The girl smirked and an elongated lance of vibrating plasma was positioned to stab through his chest. Her sword was completely sheathed in lightning and he knew this was going to hurt. Kisame moved as quickly as he could to almost manage to avoid her strike. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough and the plasma lance ran straight through his left shoulder, melting and burning everything.

The next moment, the girl was behind him and readied her sword. This time she wouldn't miss and Kisame murmured, "Fuck."

But luckily, he still had Itachi and a skeletal arm to deflect her attack. Her lightning clashed against his Susanoo and failed to pierce his armour.

Asami retreated immediately and reorganised.

"Apparently, you two have also some tricks up your sleeve", the girl ground her teeth and trained her murderous onyx eyes on them and Itachi's interesting avatar. What kind of Jutsu was this?

"Kisame, can you still fight?" Itachi was shielded by a red glowing skeleton and kept an eye on the girl.

"Thank you, Itachi, without you I would have been a goner", Kisame regretted his earlier carelessness which almost cost him his life. "Bringing her down will require a bit more effort than initially expected." The girl was nasty and annoyingly fast.

"Kisame, I think we should withdraw. We have achieved our main objective and I see no reason to engage her further", Itachi proposed. He didn't exactly know what the girl still was capable of and he wasn't particularly eager to learn about it the hard way. Because one unpleasant surprise was enough. And it was true, they would gain nothing from continuing this fight.

Furthermore, retreating now provided him with a perfect pretence to secretly spare her.

After all, Itachi had no particular interest in robbing Konoha of such a promising Kunoichi as long as it could be avoided. And it wouldn't be the first time that he let a seemingly talented Konoha-nin accidentally escape him despite being supposed to kill them.

"Really? The fight hasn't even truly started and you already want to give up, seriously?" Kisame wasn't exactly satisfied with the suggestion and neither was Asami.

"Yes, the asshole is right. Don't forget that I still have unfinished business with you both", Asami took a firm grip on her sword's hilt.

She charged forward and obviously aimed at Kisame. He was wounded, he was weak. In short, he was an easy target. But in the last moment, she changed her axis of attack and her plasma turned purple.

"Die!" Her sword slammed into Itachi's avatar and pierced his armour like butter with a hot blade. Her purple Chakra simply cut through the consecutive hardened layers of Chakra.

Nevertheless, she was unable to penetrate deep enough. The point almost reached his heart, but her blade was stopped by the last layer of Chakra.

Her attack had failed and Asami instantly fell back. Sadly, she reacted too late and Asami suffered the consequences of her failure.

"Amaterasu."

Itachi activated his right eye and set the girl on fire. The girl might be talented and it was definitely a waste to kill her. Nevertheless, he couldn't die here because he still had a specific task to fulfill. He still had a certain foolish little brother to fight.

Asami was engulfed by his black flames and she took a simultaneous direct strike from Kisame. Fortunately, her shield blunted his sword and nullified the majority of its blunt force. Nevertheless, she was hurled across the bloodstained muddy ground until her body finally skidded and stopped. Asami ground her teeth in pain. Everything hurt, her muscles, her bones and her left arm was devoured by the black flames. This wasn't good.

"Kisame, we withdraw", Itachi ordered with his calm and cold and stoic face. He didn't show it, but he realised that he had escaped a really nasty wound. Her sword had pierced his Susanoo and in the end it was a close run thing.

"Really? Shouldn't we finish the job", Kisame complained.

"I don't think that is necessary, Kisame, my Amaterasu should finish her", Itachi turned to Kisame. His right eye was bleeding.

"You will go ahead and I will follow soon. I still have something to investigate." Itachi was confused because for some reason his Amaterasu malfunctioned. The flames should have engulfed her entire body by now, but that didn't happen. Instead, her Chakra shield had partially blocked Amaterasu and he was curious about how.

"Whatever, you are the boss", Kisame sighed after a long pause and left. He didn't doubt the effectiveness of Itachi's Amaterasu and he was sure the girl was as good as dead.

Itachi walked in the direction the girl had flown and he didn't expect to discover anything but soggy ash. However, the closer he came, the more he sensed a particular Chakra which he recognised. The girl had … survived, she had survived his Amaterasu. That was impossible.

Apparently, it wasn't. Because his entire body could feel massive concentration of pure Yin lying before him. This amount of Chakra wasn't normal. He met this kind of Chakra before. It was from when he tried to enter her mind using Genjutsu and her Yin attacked him like a watchdog. Her entire body solely consisted of pure undiluted Yin.

Itachi sped up. Eventually, he got a closer look at her and what he saw disturbed him. Her arm, her arm was missing. She had amputated her own arm to save her life. Asami touched the cauterized wound and smirked. The wound was shining with a purplish shade and Itachi's eyes went wide. This couldn't be, this wasn't true.

Asami giggled amused," Surprised, aren't we?" Her lost arm was regenerating right before his eyes and it was in the process of reconstructing itself by the power of her purple Chakra.

"Itachi, I will share a little secret with. Do know that there is a reason whyYin is called the spiritual component of Chakra and not the physical? While Yang is well known to grant longevity and vitality, Yin is the power of your imagination, the power of your will, the power to create things that are otherwise impossible. This is the truest form of Yin, Itachi."

Asami smiled. The rain fell and fell and ultimately her arm was completely restored before Itachi's eyes.

"And now run. Because I can promise you, Itachi, I, Asami, will kill you and your partner for what you have done to me today. After all, we are family, Itachi, and an Uchiha doesn't forgive easily." He stared into her eyes and he held his breath.

How couldn't he recognize these eyes? These eyes which were so familiar. These eyes which brought so much pain and tragedy. A red five petaled flower on black background welcomed him. A stylized Platycodon which promised revenge and his destruction. And around her took form a purple glowing rib cage.

Itachi fell silent and disappeared.

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"So what do you mean by your entire team is dead?" The Chunin stared at Asami. He was stunned like the rest of the people in the mission room.

Seriously, who wouldn't have been that? A battered looking girl completely covered in bruises and wonderful red blood had appeared suddenly from nowhere to enter the office as if it was completely normal. The girl pushed aside a random Genin team in front of her without a second thought and approached the desk, only to declare that her entire team was dead. Considering that, their surprise was understandable.

Exactly what she said, you idiot. Was the definition of the word dead so difficult to understand? Did he need a dictionary, or what?

Asami rolled her annoyed eyes, "I mean what I say when I say they are dead, gone, history, visiting the afterlife, call it whatever you want. Pounding rice with the rabbits on the moon! Bottom line, they are all dead, except for me, obviously."

"You are joking, aren't you?"

Enough was enough, her patience was limited. Especially, if she was in a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of a bad mood. It was a bad day like the entire week. Because walking all the way home alone from Amegakure wasn't exactly funny. It was a long way and she was tired.

"My friend, do I look to you as though I am joking about something this serious?" Asami used one of her more intimidating glares in her repertoire. An icy glare which could almost freeze the poor man solid together with he rest of the Chunin. The girl was scary despite her petite stature and her adorable face.

"No, ehrm, I didn't intend to offend you, ehrm", the Chunin stumbled over his words, but thankfully he was saved in time.

"Asami, can you please tell me what has happened?" the Hokage smiled and dismissed the poor wilting Chunin.

Asami sighed and reported briefly, "On our mission, team seven has encountered what I can only define as a highly unexpected amount of resistance. After we had entered Amegakure, our team was encircled by a strong force composed of unknown hostile shinobi. Outnumbered and ambushed, our team was quickly eliminated without being able to organise an effective defence. Masasane, Aritame and Yukihiro all have fallen, thus, I am the only survivor of that tragic engagement."

The Hokage, the Chunin, the Genin and their sensei in a green training -suit offered her strained smiles. Their limitless pity was written clearly all over their faces, but Asami didn't need their useless pity. What she and her eyes really needed now was sleep.

A few seconds passed before the Hokage spoke again," And how precisely were you so lucky so as to manage to survive an encounter which eliminated a Jonin?"

Hiruzen had already a hunch as to how. Ignoring a few minor details, the situation was comparable and it wasn't so surprising that Asami was once again the only survivor. Nevertheless, he still wanted a verbal confirmation.

And Asami answered dutifully as ever," I successfully fought off the enemy and they decided to retreat after they had eliminated their main target, the merchant. Thus, I survived and here I am standing now before you. And that's the end of my story."

"So, can I leave now?" Asami wore a bored expression. Everything had been said that needed saying and she just wanted out and go home.

The Hokage took a puff on his pipe and smiled, "I think that should be sufficient for the time being. Thank you, Asami, for the enlightening report. We may require further testimony later on, however, to clarify a few points. But for now, you are dismissed."

Asami nodded and walked away, but an annoying boy clothed in another stupid green training- suit jumped into her path to block her way.

Asami furrowed an eyebrow and glared icily at the boy." What are you doing?"

The ignorant Genin didn't budge. Instead, he gathered all his courage and gave her a rallying thumbs up," Don't blame yourself, Asami, you are not responsible for their deaths. You have to only look forward and believe in the shining power of youth."

Asami blinked and was understandably confused. Look forward? Power of youth? What the fuck was he talking about?

"And who are you? Do we somehow know each other?" Asami analysed the boy and tried to remember him. Seriously, who was this guy?

"Don't you remember me?"

Asami shook her tired head. Didn't he see that she was in no mood to talk?

"I am Lee, Rock Lee. We graduated this year together. You have always praised me for my Taijutsu during our classes", Lee grinned optimistically.

Her brain worked slowly, but in the end she remembered, "Rock Lee, Rock Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee. Ah, yes, the self-proclaimed future Taijutsu master with more talent than the blind instructors at the academy ever gave him credit for. But to be honest, I have never praised you for anything. I merely told you that your Taijutsu is half-way passable with a lot of room for improvement."

"That doesn't matter. So, thank you for your support Back in the academy, Asami. Even a small compliment is still a compliment!" Lee gave her another thumbs up with that silly grin of his.

Asami sighed and smiled, but only on the outside. "Whatever, if you will excuse me, I really need to sleep. So, would you please step aside and let me through, Lee."

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The dark room was illuminated only by a few sparse lamps and the wooden ceiling was supported by a series of tall stone pillars.

Asami was currently standing trial before Konoha's special 'investigation' commission and she was slowly growing impatient. She was standing here already for a full hour and waited for a judgement. Her judges were the three village elders, the Jonin commander, the head of Konoha's intelligence division and last but not least Hokage himself. And unfortunately for her, they took their time. They were talking, and talking, and talking, and didn't come to any immediate conclusion no matter how many times they analysed her mission report.

Asami wished to leave this place, but she couldn't. She had to stay here as the only available witness and even had to defend herself repeatedly against many uncomfortable questions. What happened? How did it happen? And especially, how did she survive?

The bandaged village elder turned his head and gazed at her;" So, what do you think, Asami. What in your opinion has resulted in this unacceptable debacle?" She didn't like this man, she didn't like him at all.

Asami looked up and met his stare. She distrusted Danzo since ever since the moment she laid eyes on him, but she obviously couldn't show that distaste openly. Instead, she smiled on.

"Well, in my opinion, I would say that it was a complex combination of different factors which were responsible for the disaster. Team Seven lacked the necessary strength to complete such a dangerous mission and as a consequence of that, it was annihilated by a vastly numerical superior force of unidentified shinobi. In summary, our mission should have been at least classified as A-rank, Danzo-sama. Obviously, that wasn't the case and we were doomed from the start."

"However, the main reason is an other one. As I said before, my Jonin-sensei determinedly ignored all of my repeated warnings and my advice. In my opinion, we were doomed largely due to Masasane's utter incompetence."

Asami completed her assessment which was met by a series of curious stares. Did they hear her right? Did a 12-year-old girl just call her sensei, a Jonin, incompetent? Yes, she did and she didn't even blink. Her gaze was unwavering.

Shikaku cleared his throat,"You talk about incompetence, but isn't that an extremely bold claim? After all, we are talking here about your late sensei, an accomplished Jonin."

"Not at all, I was able to detect our enemies thanks to their Chakra signatures and continuously advised Masasane to abandon the mission. But he ignored me and that was a fatal mistake." Asami smiled.

"So, you are telling me that you are not only a sensor type, but also that your detection skills are superior to that of a full-fledged Jonin? Do you realise what you are indirectly implying?" Shikaku didn't believe her. As far as he could tell, the girl was good, but not that good enough unless … Unless … Could the girl be a genius? Because that would explain a lot.

"Yes, correct. And yes, I am fully aware of the ramifications of what I've said, Shikaku. But I can assure you that it is a matter of fact, I am superior", Asami smiled as innocently as ever. Shikaku wasn't totally convinced and his eyes narrowed.

"Shikaku, why don't we simply test her to see if she possesses the abilities she has claimed?" Danzo intervened. Aside from Hiruzen, he knew more about the girl than everyone else and he was interested in her.

"And how should we do that, Danzo?" the Nara was mildly annoyed.

"Don't worry, Shikaku, I already have an idea."

Danzo turned to the suspicious girl," How many hidden ANBU shinobi are in this room?"

"In this room? At the moment, there are eight hidden signatures. I sense eight. Four hide behind the stone pillars, two are stationed at the door and the remaining two stand behind you." Asami gave them a bored look because it wasn't particularly difficult to locate them. It was easy, far too easy. The ANBU didn't even bother to hide their Chakra signatures.

Danzo grinned, "And, Kagetoki, was she right?"

An ANBU appeared and knelt. "Yes, Danzo-sama, she was indeed accurate, right down to our positions."

"Hiruzen, I think that we should allow Asami to join ANBU, where her abundant talent will be put to better use. Putting her anywhere else would be a pure waste of her vast potential". Danzo's proposal surprised everyone but Hokage. Hiruzen had certainly anticipated his proposal. Danzo was always in search of talented shinobi.

Hiruzen's eyes slid between Asami and Danzo before he decided. He took a puff on his pipe and smiled.

"Asami, do you think joining ANBU would be acceptable to you?"

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	16. Arc III Chapter I

**III**

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 **Arc III Chapter I**

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"Captain", an orange haired shinobi hidden behind a porcelain lynx mask addressed his superior, as it was typical among Konoha shinobi, with the ubiquitous term Captain. Next to him stood his partner wearing a black coat and white panther mask.

Their Captain turned her head and gifted them as usual with pure disdain as if they had the intention of backstabbing her at any moment, which was indeed well within the realm of the possible, considering the circumstances.

The girl didn't particularly trust them from the first time they laid eyes on each other and despite her continuous fruitful cooperation with them, it was a truly intelligent decision in his opinion.

After all, they had just recently received explicit orders from Danzo-sama to keep track of any suspicious behaviour and even to take more drastic measures to deal with her necessary.

It couldn't be doubted, though, that such an attack was absolutely suicidal and the overall success rate of an assassination attempt was at best questionable. To everyone within ANBU was clear that one shouldn't mess with Asami or it would end badly and certainly would grant you a free ticket to the nearest hospital.

A more than factual rumour testified to this fact. During her introduction phase, Asami beat up her ANBU instructors during her first training session due to a 'small' disagreement they had. Apparently, the two ANBU had the bright idea to call her a little girl and wanted to "test" her actual strength by playing a small game with her. Obviously, it didn't go well for them and both had their fingers burned, literally. Over the next one and a half years, Asami showed them how 'girly' she was exactly and how much her abilities had been underestimated.

Over the following months, the freshly inaugurated ANBU demonstrated that she was someone who must be taken seriously.

She was merciless efficiency in persona from what he could observe. One moment Asami was a sharp scalpel in a situation which required finesse, the next moment an unstoppable sledgehammer when brute force was required.

Around a year ago, he overheard a rather specific story regarding the girl which was spread further by some of the surviving mission's participants.

Apparently, her squad together with three others had been encircled last winter in a village by a superior Kiri force after a series of heavy fighting near the border region. The strike force had suffered heavy casualties and was reduced to a shadow of its former self.

The majority were either killed in action or rendered combat ineffective. In summary, they had their backs against the proverbial wall, not to say they were fucked up beyond all recognition, and their chances of survival were marginal.

Ultimately, the mission was, from a certain perspective, a partial success. Thanks to Asami's almost 'heroic' feats, the remaining survivors were able to break out of their encirclement and return to the village.

But the primary reason for their miraculous escape was a certain event which had happened the night before their breakout and it proved to be crucial in persuading the ANBU to follow her command. Asami was assumed to be personally responsible for the deaths, but her involvement could never be proven officially since there wasn't any solid evidence.

Her actions earned her a sort of grudging respect among the majority of ANBU veterans. They despised her actions and her for what she had done. Nevertheless, their respect was genuine. As a consequence of her displayed skill, she quickly rose through the ranks and gained a position of more or less unofficial authority within Konoha's ANBU.

Asami was a force to be reckoned with, albeit the girl was more often feared rather than respected. Because every ANBU knew what was hiding beneath her cute innocent mask and her smile. She was neither cute, nor innocent, and she had probably murdered more people than all of them put together.

Because one thing was certain, Asami was strong, extremely strong, considering her young age and to a degree that was worrying and not to say terrifying.

This was perhaps the reason why Asami was already compared with the ANBU legends of their time such as Kakashi or the more infamous Itachi, though the latter comparison was rarely made for obvious reasons.

Asami finally acknowledged their presence and turned her head to greet them with a smirk," Ah, what a surprise, who do we have here?"

Asami was clad in her typical steel armour and beneath it she wore her favourite colour as together with her beloved long sleeves. Her clothes were black and decorated by a playful floral pattern of gold and silver.

And as always, her armour and attire was perfectly maintained without a single scratch to mar the lacquered finish. She had already been a part of ANBU for a while, but in all that time, she had never been wounded once. In fact, her only major annoyance were frequent bloodstains that covered her armor and bloodstains were i so incredibly infuriatingly difficult to remove.

Asami was never worried about being killed. No, the little princess was primarily worried about the condition of her clothes. Fu was convinced that Asami had definitely screwed up set of priorities and a few screws loose on top of that. And he was definitely not the only one within ANBU who felt that way.

Nevertheless, the fact that this girl was nearly unkillable wasn't particularly surprising considering her go to technique, a spherical purple barrier. In short, Asami was a walking fortress and the degree of protection she enjoyed was insane, not to say inhuman. This strange construction of chakra was somehow impervious to all attacks. How Root was supposed to bypass this level of defence? They needed more information:

Currently, he had only witnessed a single instance of her shield cracking. It wasn't impossible, but what he saw in the following moment, was far more interesting. A purple bone fragment, a single rib blocked the attack which had penetrated her shield. And for some mysterious reason, this seemingly unimportant detail disturbed Danzo-sama greatly. After that event, he grew increasingly concerned about Asami's growing power and Fu didn't understand why. What did his master know that he didn't.

What he knew certainly, however, was that Asami's costume flouted the majority of written and unwritten ANBU regulations, which seemed to be in her opinion merely advisory and not mandatory. Nobody cared as long as she produced results, which she did.

In the end, she even got an entry in the bingo book. Her sense of fashion was fairly memorable and you didn't meet a shinobi who was clothed like nobility on the battlefield. Furthermore, she had earned herself somehow a red circled and heavily underscored 'flee on sight' tag together with a widely feared moniker, the White Death'.

Why White Death? Well, that was a very good question. Nobody, including her, knew who had coined the title, nor how she had picked up this 'silly' nickname. And in general, it was still a mystery to the majority of ANBU how any sane person could ever consider calling their little black princess of all things the 'White' Death when a variety of other titles would be far more fitting.

Asami smiled and the disdain dripped from her voice was noticeable," Danzo's little watch dogs. Hopefully unfortunate circumstances have brought you to me today? What does the senile old man want now, Fu, Torune?" She loathed them with passion and the two were painfully aware that their presence wasn't welcome. What Asami didn't know, however, was that the hate was reciprocal.

Asami wondered," And where is the third puppy, our little emotionless albino artist? Has he a free day today, or is he off refilling his magical ink?"

"Rest assured, we are by no means your watchdogs, Asami. We were simply dispatched by Danzo-sama to personally escort you during this mission", Fu countered. Nevertheless, the Yamanaka wasn't a specialist in conversation strategies nor basic subterfuge like most in Root were. His obvious attempt at lying failed.

Asami seemed disappointed as she tilted her head," Fu, please don't do such things. I can tell you that you are a few centuries too young for these types of games. You can try this kind of bullshit when you are older, do we understand each other?"

When he was older?

"And I will also give you a bit of free wisdom, Fu", Asami smiled encouragingly.

"A lie doesn't become truth the more often you repeat it. I am not stupid, Fu. I know exactly that you both are here on somebody else's command. I met him once and I don't trust him further than I can throw him. Fu, my answer is still no and if he truly wants me to join his cute little cult, Root, then he has to offer me a bit more to sweeten up the deal. Because I am certainly not that cheap ", Asami giggled behind her mask and shook her head, "Anyway, why are you here aside from 'assisting' and 'helping' me?"

"We have been ordered to inform you that the Hokage has selected you for a special mission and you should return to Konoha as soon as possible."

"As soon as possible?"

"Clearly, after we have completed your current mission", Fu clarified.

"Then what are you waiting for? We don't have all day, do we?" Asami disappeared and Fu and Torune had to prepare themselves for another of her feared forced marches. Because the girl was a well-known slave driver, notorious among ANBU.

Without complaining further, the Yamanaka ground his teeth and followed after her. He didn't understand why Danzo-sama had ever bothered to try recruiting Asami. The girl was literally the worst choice possible. Eccentric, irrational, and generally moody as hell. But she was unfortunately an ANBU and they now had the dubious privilege to be under her command, which frequently wasn't a pleasant experience.

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"Fu, what are our objectives again?" Asami led the way and Fu was sightly troubled by her speed, because keeping up with her was strenuous to say the least. The girl was fast as usual and as usual, he suspected that in secret she intended to kill them ' by accident', which wouldn't be the first time.

"We are supposed to link up with a Konoha Genin team that has encountered unexpected heavy resistance on their missions and therefore has requested immediate support", Fu reported.

"Really? Is that what we have become? Is this what Konoha has come to? We are sending ANBU. ANBU and not just some random useless Chunin, to support a few fucking Genin in the middle of nowhere", Asami clicked her tongue.

"We are nothing short of a glorified bunch of babysitters. For what? Yes, for Genin? That is … not acceptable", Asami complaint. Because the Uchiha within her was dissatisfied with her current situation, strongly dissatisfied. You didn't send out ANBU for these sorts of missions. Seriously, you didn't. Not necessarily, because she wanted the Genin to be massacred and die horrible deaths, but rather because deploying ANBU was in her eyes a tool of last resort.

You didn't waste your ANBU to save some stupid Genin. Especially, when today was one of her precious free days. Call someone else for this kind of shit and not her! Why did Hiruzen send her, specifically, and not some nameless disposable ANBU? Asami continued grumbling. Stupid Konoha, stupid Hokage, stupid mission. She was sure that the old man was planning something, but what?

Eventually, they arrived and Asami was greeted by a few familiar faces. A bashful blue haired girl with white eyes, Hinata. A stoic grey trench coat, Shino. And a boy with strong canine, Kiba. Behind them stood their sensei, a woman Asami had almost, but only almost, forgotten. But Asami hadn't, because Kurenai hadn't changed much despite the years. Her appearance was the same right down to her unkempt hair.

Asami smiled weakly. Did she remember her too? Unlikely.

Distracted by her memories, Asami asked, "Well, we are the support you have requested. So, what is the problem? And why did you call us?"

Kurenai was surprised," I didn't expect that I would get an ANBU team when I called for reinforcements."

"Usually, we wouldn't be dispatched for such petty missions, but today is a special day and times are unfortunately changing even for us ANBU. So once again, what is the problem? Why are we here?" Asami made her dissatisfaction public and her voice grew sharper than usual.

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Bringing Asami into ANBU was an admittedly good move from Danzo. Hiruzen had honestly never expected that his old friend would act so boldly, which was unusual for him. Danzo wanted her, that was obvious. But why? Why was he so interested? Did Danzo know something important about Asami, which was still unknown to him? It wasn't impossible and it wouldn't be the first time. Danzo was a man with many secrets and a vast information network within the village.

Hiruzen leaned back on his comfortable seat and sighed. In hindsight, it was an exceedingly stupid decision to allow Asami to join the ANBU. He had sorely miscalculated in that regard. Normally, it would have been an ideal solution to indirectly reject Danzo's request. Without her consent, he couldn't have acted so freely as he wanted. But how could he have realistically anticipated that Asami would indeed accept the offer? No, the girl didn't turn down his offer and that was the source of many problems started.

She was twelve and normally you would expect one to exhibit a more childlike sort of behaviour, such as playing with friends or whatever else a young girl may do. Instead, she was almost enthusiastic about it and he had never seen a shinobi so eager to join the ANBU within his lifetime. Her joy and glee were palpable.

The Hokage massaged his temples due to a mild feeling of desperation.

Whatever, the damage had been done and now he had to remove her somehow from Danzo's influence sphere.

Or did his old friend really think that he wouldn't notice what he was up to? That he was trying to put yet another valuable asset directly under his control and to add another further strong piece to his chess board, which was highly problematic.

Asami was not only powerful in terms of sheer strength alone, but she was also non-aligned. A kunoichi without any clan loyalties, without connections, without relatives, without a family. Asami had no one to look to. The girl was alone and due to her isolation, she was a perfect target for Danzo, just as he had tried with Kakashi. Thankfully, Danzo's attempts to control Kakashi had ultimately failed.

In the same way, Danzo was trying to further isolate the still impressionable girl from her peers and to use the ANBU as a pretence to slowly draw her over to his side. According to ANBU's mission reports, Asami had a remarkable tendency by sheer 'coincidence' to be paired up with many former Root members. No matter which mission she was assigned, recently they were always by her side. Danzo had his eyes fixed on her.

Fortunately, his old friend didn't have a great deal of success, and nothing was lost yet. Nevertheless, he shouldn't be careless. After all, he had thought that Itachi would be 'safe' too, but that was sadly not the case. He had underestimated Danzo and how far he would go.

Hiruzen looked through the window of his office to gaze upon his peaceful beloved village. In any case, he could under no circumstances allow Asami to fall into Danzo's hands.

He was already in possession of far too much influence within the village and he didn't want to imagine what his friend could do with such a mighty tool at his disposal like Asami.

Asami was at least low S-class or high A-class by her sheer talent, her raw skill, and what she could do with a single Jutsu, which was mildly disturbing, the more he thought about it. Asami was just Asami, just a little girl. Nevertheless, so much power was in such tiny hands. It was worrying, deeply worrying.

Somehow, he had to get her discreetly away from ANBU 'accidentally'. It was imperative to deny Danzo any form of access to the child, and a more normal environment would have, hopefully, some positive effects on her strange personality.

The issue was, however, that the little princess wasn't particularly keen about leaving them voluntarily and he didn't have the authority to force her to resign against her will nor to bring his proposal before the village council. Oh, let us discharge one of the most valuable and successful ANBU the village ever had simply because, well … because. How would that look like?

Hiruzen sighed angrily while drumming with his fingers on his desk. Uhmmmmm, how he hated politics. No matter what he did and where he looked, problems were simply always popping up everywhere. Danzo, Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Kumo. And then the vicious cycle would start all over again without any end in sight. Danzo, Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Kumo, Danzo, Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Kumo, Danzo, Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Kumo, Danzo, Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Kumo. The Hokage took a heavy huff from his pipe which was the only reliable form of stress relief he had found in all these years and probably was the only reason that he had survived it even so long.

In a certain sense, she was very much like Kakashi, although in her case, he didn't have the option of giving her her own Genin team. A 13-year-old Jonin sensei would be simply far too awkward and it would not be particularly healthy for the poor assigned Genin.

Hiruzen was deeply immersed in his private thoughts, his posture pensive. He evaluated his position when his door opened and Asami entered.

"You called for me, Hokage-sama." Asami stood calmly in the middle of the room.

"As you may have heard, I have decided to assign you a special mission, Asami". She remained silent and observed him analytically.

"Surely you must know that the annual Chunin exams will be hosted this year in Konoha?"

Asami tilted her head and furrowed an eyebrow," And why is that relevant to me?"

Hiruzen proceeded after a short pause, "We have received word from certain reliable sources that the exams will be used as a cover for something major, even though we have no idea yet what precisely is planned, nor whom. And furthermore, one of the participants apparently plays an important role in our enemy's plans."

Asami didn't appear to be convinced," And?"

"I want you to infiltrate the Chunin exams and observe the participants for any suspicious behaviour. Especially, the shinobi from Otogakure, who are participating for the first time this year", the Hokage smiled, but Asami didn't fail to notice that the word Otagakure was spoken with undeniable disdain.

Which was understandable considering that the "village" was known to founded by a certain former student of him and widely-known defector. The question was, however, why the Hokage allowed any of them to enter Konoha to begin with then despite their more than dubious background? But Asami didn't question Hiruzen's decision openly. She wasn't the Hokage.

"That is my special mission? I have to infiltrate our own Chunin exams and act as a Genin while spying on my fellow candidates. This 'mission' seems a bit, how shall I put it, silly, if not outright idiotic to me. Don't you think my abilities are much more needed somewhere else, Hokage-sama?" Asami narrowed her black eyes to express her visible discontent with her new task.

"Don't be disappointed, Asami. I can guarantee you that your task will be of utmost importance for the village. Furthermore, you are the only one available to take this mission among all ANBU shinobi as you fit the typical age category." The old man used his friendliest smile which had, however, no effect on the girl who possessed an adamant face made from pure granite and a heart of stone. Moments like this made him seriously doubt if she was actually twelve-years-old, and not much, much older.

"Of the utmost importance, you say? I sincerely doubt that, Hokage-sama, I sincerely doubt that", blunt scepticism filled her voice," Nevertheless, I will complete the assigned mission and as dutifully as always, even though I believe that this assignment is a truly terrible idea."

The Hokage ignored her typical complaints and explained further," You will take on your former Genin identity and enter the exams under your own name after after recuperating from your official emotional trauma. For that reason, you will be attached to an already existing team that is missing its third member."

"Does this mean that I am the only one assigned this stealth operation and there will be no support. And furthermore, that I have to give up my perfect cover story of the tragically retired Kunoichi", she inquired, dismayed and not pleased by what he said.

"Yes, more or less. That was everything. You are dismissed now", Hiruzen smiled peacefully and Asami was about to grudgingly leave the damned office. Stupid Hokage, stupid mission, stupid Chunin exams, such a nuisance. The Uchiha clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"And don't forget that in the unlikely case your identity as an ANBU should be exposed during the exams, you clearly will have to be removed from the ANBU as the 'standard; protocol dictates."

The Hokage grinned victoriously, "Therefore, you shouldn't use any of your notorious signature techniques nor any of your well-known flashy fighting style if you don't want to be compromised. Otherwise, you will be quickly found out, Asami."

Which was, however, guaranteed to happen based on her volatile temper and theatrical antics. He had only to wait for the moment Asami would be provoked accordingly and she would throw her cover out of the window. He knew Asami, she was the very definition of a bad loser and her pride would never allow her to even consider defeat an acceptable option in a thousand years, especially against fledgling Genin.

"After all, who doesn't know the reputation of the infamous White Death, Konoha's teleporting and sword-loving little grim reaper", Hiruzen was teasing Asami who didn't particularly like any of these titles, not to say at all. Nevertheless, it was the most effective way to annoy her without provoking a direct confrontation. And wasn't one of his favourite hobbies chatting with young girls?

As expected, Asami gave him her typically annoyed stare, otherwise she simply ignored him as always.

"And please don't kill anyone. Because I don't want an actual massacre to happen at the exams, which would be more than a bit sub-optimal", the old man reminded her gently.

Placing her among Genin wasn't an insignificant security risk and he did indeed not need a senseless slaughter on his hands. Because such things tended to create a lot of annoying paperwork and primarily not a small diplomatic fallout.

What would the other villages think if they ever found out that Konoha had placed an ANBU among the participants who got as a result killed left and right? No, no, that wasn't good publicity.

Asami stopped and narrowed her eyes and spoke seriously, "Hokage-sama, if you want to kick me out, even though I don't know precisely why and what you are trying to achieve by it, couldn't you have opted for a less complicated way to do that? Couldn't you just send me on an impossible suicide mission, fabricate a few false accusations to discredit and discharge me, or something else along those lines."

Asami sighed," Whatever, I hope that I will at least gain my well-earned Jonin rank after this entire charade has concluded. Because I promise you that I surely won't return to being a Genin if I have to leave the ANBU."

"Aarrrgh, no advanced Ninjutsu, no speed-blitzing", Asami grumbled in dissatisfaction and already certain that these exams would be an absolute pain in her ass with her abilities limited to their bare minimum. If she wasn't officially handicapped, then she would drop some of her beloved explosives. But no, she couldn't do that, otherwise she would shred instantly 99.99999999999999% of the participants, and that was not allowed. No, no, no, killing was bad and she had to handle them all with velvet gloves and some underdeveloped Genjutsu.

Asami grumbled angrily on her way outwards and slammed the door shut behind her with such a force that nothing happened. Only a tiny crack appeared in the wall nearby stretching from one side of the room to the other.

Thus Asami's in retrospective much beloved time in the ANBU ended. Aside from the fabulously good pay she received for practically doing nothing, she appreciated particularly the gigantic amounts of paid vacation days and the overall 'professional' working environment.

Sure, sure, the missions were a bit more challenging and bloodier compared with the normal shinobi counterparts and the chances were higher that you would sooner or later bite the dust for whichever reason. And not forgetting, there was this entire secrecy thingy, you can't reveal your identity bla bla bla, etc., etc. But in exchange you had a truly abundant amount of free-time, for shinobi standards, between the sparse missions you were assigned on a mostly irregular basis. And a bunch of other extremely advantageous privileges which shouldn't be ignored.

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The room was slightly crowded as the designated proctors of the Chunin exam stood together with the various sensei of the participating teams which were assembled before Hiruzen.

Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai stood at the forefront of the crowd of shinobi. And all three of them had just recommended, as expected by the elderly Hokage, their students for the future exams. Not everyone, *cough* Iruka *cough*, shared their enthusiasm, however, and he had unfortunately to order an additional, probably unnecessary examination for the three teams in question. Hiruzen took a long pull on his pipe. But that was irrelevant now. After all, he still had something else to do.

The Hokage cleared his throat and spoke with a stern tone, " Ahem. Ahem, attention. I have still a personal announcement to make."

He waited until the crowd settled down, "Hatsu, could you please come forward. I have to discuss something specific with you."

"Specific?" the confused Kunoichi followed his order and stepped forward, "What do you want from me, Hokage-sama?"

"Hatsu, I have heard that your team had originally the intention to participate, but you sadly lack a third member because Katsumi was heavily wounded on one of your missions and won't return back into service soon. Is that true?", Hiruzen leaned back in his seat and asked curiously as if he had no idea. The truth was, however, that he knew perfectly well that the girl was probably incapacitated for the rest of life and would never recuperate.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Why should be that important, though?" Hatsu eyed him suspiciously.

"I think that I have a solution for your problem, Hatsu. Let us say, I was able to recruit an adequate replacement candidate for you if your Genin are still eager to take part in the exams", the Hokage smiled encouragingly.

"Yes, they still are", Hatsu replied after a short moment of deliberation," And who exactly is this potential candidate?"

The old man took a further huff on his pipe as he handed her the prepared information sheet," You don't know her, but her name is Minami Asami. She is a Genin who was forced to retire due to an emotional trauma after her entire former team had been killed in action. Nevertheless, she has contacted me a few weeks ago that she would like to return and take the Chunin exam if possible."

The name provoked a variety of reactions in the present people. The reactions ranged from clear disinterest to silent pity, from surprise to blank confusion. Kakashi was the only one among them who viewed him critically, almost a bit accusingly, which was understandable. What are you doing?

Hatsu was scanning through the papers and looked up, visibly concerned." Do you really think that allowing her to participate is a good idea, Hokage-sama? Does she even have the necessary skills to compete in the exams? As far as I can see, she hasn't completed a single mission above D-rank, not to mention that she has been inactive for roughly two years. I fear that she will be a dead weight and would drag my team down rather than being a help."

Hiruzen remained silent. It was obvious that Hatsu was right to doubt the reasonableness of his choice. Her reasons as well as concerns were both legitimate. Because she couldn't know that there was significantly more to Asami than the eye met.

Hiruzen offered the worried Jonin his best reassuring smile, " Don't worry, Hatsu, I don't see any problem with her being chosen. Because I can personally vouch for her abilities. I assure you that she won't disappoint you."

"Hmmmm, we will see", Hatsu kept staring at the papers and didn't seem particularly convinced.

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	17. Arc III Asami-chan's War College I

**III**

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 **Author's note:**

After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I will add a bit of much needed intelligence and organisation to the shinobi as a whole because I a bit of world building never hurts.

Therefore, I have decided to gift Konoha a proper military that actually somehow works. And then I was thinking, what does a proper military need? The answer are obviously a few service branches, a lot of ponderous abbreviations and annoying terminology. And something else. Anyway, here you have the first official part of the hopefully not too boring info series baptised Asami-chan's War College.

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 **Arc III Asami-chan's War College I**

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 **Lecture: Introduction to the basic organisation of the Konohagakure Armed Forces**

 **organised by the High Command of the ANBU for new ANBU recruits and educational purposes**

 **Lecturer: ANBU Col. Minami Asami replacing ANBU Maj. Gen. Hyuga Toshisada due to unknown circumstances**

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Firstly, I have to congratulate you, the new batch of official cannon fodder..., ehm, I mean recruits, on your choice to come to us, the prestigious and well paid ANBU. And not the flack jacketed Army dunderheads and the wannabe master psychologists from the Intelligence department, because I tell you, I hate them both, these idiots. Nevertheless, I hope, for you at least, that you have considered your decision wisely.

Because, I will be honest with you, the majority of you in this room won't retire exactly peacefully. It is far more likely that you will die a gruesome and painful death far, far away from home while cursing your own fate and crying for your mother, statistically at least. However, perhaps you are one of the few lucky ones and will actually survive all this bullshit, who knows. I can assure you that no single mission in your ANBU career will be easy-peasy, we go where nobody else dares to. We ANBU are the first and simultaneously the last line of defence protecting Konoha and bla bla bla.

Anyway, after I have tried to do something for the esprit de corps, I now welcome you to this short lecture about the boring subject of basic organisation of the Konohagakure Armed Forces. A lecture that I am only doing, by the way, because I was forced to do so by a certain individual up the ladder who apparently wants to save himself a lot of work and time by passing the task to lecture you newbies down to me. But I won't give names, however, *cough* Toshisada, you fucking lazy asshole, I will pay you back one day for this *cough*.

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Before I start this lecture, however, I will have to address a particular phenomenon which you will inevitably encounter sooner or later during your future ANBU career. What I mean is that shinobi are generally extremely lazy in regard to correct as well as exact terminology.

As a result, colloquial terms are in fact a common occurrence and often used instead of the proper designations such as High Command of the ANBU (HCANBU) or Supreme Commander of the Konohagakure Armed Forces (SCKAF), which are primarily used in writing and you will practically never encounter in the spoken language.

While such tendencies towards simplification are understandable and largely unproblematic as long as your counterpart gets what you are talking about, this tendency can be nonetheless sometimes slightly annoying.

The prime example in this case is the ubiquitous word Captain, I hate it. Originally, the word only described the rank, but by now you can use it to address any sort of superior regardless of their actual rank, which is, as I said, extremely irritating. When some unknown shinobi addresses his CO with Captain, you have effectively no idea to whom you are talking to. Said person could be anything from a simple and insignificant Corporal up to the highest General.

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 **XXXX** KonohagakureArmed Forces (KAF)

Supreme High Command of the Konohagakure Armed Forces (SHCKAF)

Supreme Commander of the Konohagakure Armed Forces: OF-10 Hokage (SCKAF)

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The Konohagakure Armed Forces describe the entirety of Konoha's military. The KAF are being headed by the Supreme High Command of the Konohagakure Armed Forces, abbreviated SHCKAF.

The SHCKAF consists of the village elders, the three Chiefs of staff, the designated Supreme Commander, the Hokage, and various other optional members. What are these fucktards responsible for? Well, not very much actually apart from arguing until late into the night and getting absolutely nowhere except for rare occurrences when the Supreme High Command isn't occupied with their traditional infighting.

The KAF are divided into the three following service branches that are formally subordinated to the SHCKAF. The division is actually quite useful aside from providing me with a reason to nit-pick about the incompetent Army fools and causing a relatively passionate interservice rivalry, albeit no open hostilities have broken out, yet.

Army, ANBU and ONI are constantly competing with each other for limited financial resources, you wouldn't believe me how often money is an issue, who gets how much paid, who gets all the new shiny equipment, who gets a new barrack, who gets the corner office, etc., etc.

And clearly for qualified personnel, which are, by the way, hard to come by these days. Therefore, it is always delightful to see how we ANBU steal from the Army and ONI the most talented people via our recruitment programs and how they are furious afterwards when we rub it into their faces.

Moreover, a few chain of command issues can arise from this fact from time to time like, for example, an Army Colonel futilely trying to order an ANBU Major who will completely ignore the former and vice versa. Trust me, the latter happens way more often than you might expect. It wouldn't be the first that I have called for Army reinforcements which suddenly dissolved into thin air because an Army Major who held a grudge against me for some petty reasons had received magical orders out of nowhere to go somewhere else, ideally far, far, far away from my position. Therefore, one of my personal advises, never count on the Army guys to actually arrive. Seriously, don't rely on them unless necessary.

Because as a rule of thumb, we hate the Army and regard them as bloody amateurs and better armed thugs, I only say the ANBU rejected me yesterday.

And the Army hates us and sees us as the cockiest bastards alive who get all the glory despite them doing all the heavy lifting.

We both hate the chair force guys from ONI, however, because you never know what these useless motherfuckers are up to today.

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 **XXX** Army (Army) "Army"

High Command of the Army (HCA) "Army Command" "ArmCo" "HighCom"

Chief of Staff of the Army: OF-9 General (CSA) "Jonin Commander"

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I might be a bit harsh by continuously calling the green flak jackets from the Army incompetent and inept, which they are by the way, but I have nevertheless to admit that the Army constitutes the backbone of Konoha's military. The Army is the biggest of the three services with currently -redacted- battalions under their command. These battalions form the small professional core of its peace time force and are normally not that bad compared with the reserve units, which we will talk about immediately.

Anyway, the Army is led by the High Command of the Army which is largely responsible for strategic planning and operational matters. The HCA is formed by the Chief of Staff of the Army, a few lonely staff officers and the highest ranking Army officers in the vicinity.

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 **XX** Army Reserve Division

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The Army Reserve Division is, as the name suggests, formally subordinated to the Army and represents the main source of Konoha's war potential with circa, I don't know the exact number, -redacted - men under arms at the moment.

The reserve includes the majority of Konoha's shinobi who are neither a part of the active Army, the ANBU nor ONI. From the rustiest retired Jonin to the youngest academy student able to carry something that even remotely resembles a weapon, or in short, basically every able bodied man in existence, they are all part of the honourable reserve since the first day they set their foot into the Ninja academy.

Despite the fact that the reserve can count many powerful Jonin among their ranks such as Hatake Kakashi who has unfortunately left us some time ago, Sarutobi Asuma, Yuhi Kurenai or, for example, Might Guy, the quality of these troops is on average doubtable, not to say horrendous. Because in my experience, these reserve units are nothing more than a headless mob without discipline and coordination, incapable of executing even the simplest operations on their own without being supported by regular Army or ANBU shinobi. You have to constantly babysit them every single second, otherwise they will do something stupid and get themselves killed. I tell you, pray to god or whatever deity and cosmological entity you might worship that you are not forced to work together with this improvised militia.

The only thing they are actually good for is bolstering your numbers with masses of fresh academy Genin and Chunin which you can throw against the enemy in inexhaustible waves of green flak jackets while sincerely hoping that they don't die in droves. You see, quantity has a quality all its own.

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 **XXX** ANBU (ANBU) "ANBU"

High Command of the ANBU (HCANBU) "ANBU Command" "AnCo" "HighCom"

Chief of Staff of the ANBU: OF-9 General (CSANBU) "ANBU Commander"

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Yeah, as for the ANBU, there is not much to say except for the obvious. Compared to the Army we are way, way, way smaller and currently we are, for example, -redacted- battalions strong. But what we lack in numbers we can compensate for with our superior quality and discipline, an excellent tooth to tail ratio and our feared combat effectiveness. After all, there is a reason why we only take the best of the best and not every idiot available.

We are mainly deployed for classical special forces tasks, reconnaissance, personnel recovery, clandestine insertion, etc., etc., and not forgetting when the Army needs our raw firepower to get the job done because these better tin soldiers in their green jackets have fucked up once again.

In regard to the composition of High Command of the ANBU, well, it is basically the same one that Army Command has with a few minor details, but these are details. The Chief of Staff of the ANBU, the ANBU with the highest pay grades hanging around in the HQ and a few obligatory overworked staff officers.

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 **XXX** Office of Ninja Intelligence (ONI) "Intelligence Division"

High Command of the Office of Ninja Intelligence (HCONI) "HighCom" "Intelligence Command"

Chief of Staff of the Office of Ninja Intelligence: OF-9 General (CSONI) "Head of the Analysis Team"

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Well, if you want to hear something about these jackasses from ONI, then you have bad luck. Go and ask them yourself because I have at the moment a little cold war ongoing with them due to a certain incident that involved fighting two full strength Iwa companies on my own where according to their reliable intel only a single platoon was supposed to be. I personally suspect an assassination attempt behind that, albeit I might be only a bit too paranoid and the guys in the intelligence department are merely incompetent as usual, which is overall likelier.

So, this was today's lecture and I will see you next week then. Our topic will be "99 ways to die stupidly on the battlefield and how not to avoid it".

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	18. Arc III Chapter II

**III**

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 **Arc III Chapter II**

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Hisaaki was a proud Genin of Konoha and his four years as a shinobi did wonders for his physical constitution, which had to be expected considering the intense demanding training he was supposed to undergo on the paper. He wasn't the weakest ninja the village ever produced, but he also wasn't special by any degree. He wasn't a Taijutsu specialist, he didn't have infinite Chakra, he didn't possess any fancy Kekkei Genkai. What he had was just normal chestnut hair and a pair of brown eyes.

In general, he was pretty much unremarkable and it was painfully aware to Hisaaki that he would never reach the stars no matter how hard he tried, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing in the shinobi world. Less prominent figures tended, as far as he knew, to live longer than their more famous counterparts, who were normally remunerated with an early smooth tombstone for their services to their village.

How many high-ranked shinobi did you know who grew old? They existed, but they were rare. Or just look at the First, Second and Fourth. None of them made it past a few years aside from the Third. But the current Hokage was an exception, and the exception proved the rule. Regardless of which village, being Kage was generally a dangerous occupation for the one who took up the hat. Hisaaki nodded, convinced by his words and the advantages of his own mediocrity until he finally had enough. They were already waiting for a not insignificant amount of time on their third member, their new team member. Where was their little princess? Did she get lost? Whatever, her unsteady nature was definitely a problem.

Hisaaki was legitimately annoyed and complained, "Hatsu-sensei, how long does she still plan to let us stand here around like the greatest idiots in the entire world? She had the nerve to not appear yesterday at our final team meeting. And now it looks like she might not even come to the theoretical part of the exam. Who does she think she is? The Hokage herself?"

The Hokage? That was a bit too much praise for her. She wasn't the Hokage, just a very powerful little girl with a wonderful pair of Mangekyo. In summary, nothing you had to be concerned about. Asami was inspecting her polished nails and smirked.

Hissaki didn't stop there, however," Hatsu-sensei, why did you let her even in our team? Couldn't you have rejected her and found someone else? Someone more reliable, and not forgetting punctual."

She wasn't unpunctual, she just had a different perspective about time, or rather a different understanding of time. Why didn't anyone besides her get that it wasn't necessarily important to be the first, but the best? Not to mention, they still had plenty of time. So why the hurry, Hisaaki? These were only the Chunin exams.

Hisaaki's opinion of Asami was rather at the low end of the possible spectrum, to say the least, after the girl chose to neither show up at a single one of their designated team trainings, nor meetings in preparation of the Chunin exam. It was almost as if she didn't deem them worthwhile. And now she even went this far and let them all get roasted under the sun in front of the academy. Hisaaki was pissed off, slightly pissed off.

Their Jonin-sensei defended her, however," Don't be too hard on her, Hisaaki. As far as I know, she has only recently recovered from her traumatic experience and you shouldn't expect much therefore from Asami. Do you remember how you were a total wreckage after what happened to Katsumi?

You didn't stop blaming yourself for your own shortcomings. Don't you remember how you were too slow, too weak to protect Katsumi? And now imagine yourself in her position."

"What happened?" Hissaki looked up to his sensei.

.

.

"I don't know for sure", Hatsu hesitated visibly," But according to all the information I attained regarding Asami, her entire previous team was killed on a mission."

"Killed? So, does that mean that she is…" Hisaaki stared incredulously at his sensei.

Hatsu sighed," Yes, they all died and she was somehow the only survivor, which was also the original reason which led to her retirement." But the more relevant question was how? How did Asami survive? Because Hatsu had known Masasane since their days together in the academy.

He might not have been the strongest shinobi in the world, but he had been nevertheless a fully-fledged Jonin. So, if Asami survived this mysterious attack and Masasane didn't, there were only two possible options. Either the girl got incredibly lucky back then and made a miraculous escape, or she was actually far stronger …

Hatsu shook her head and dispelled these ridiculous ideas of her. As usual, she was just putting too much thought into this. Asami was simply extremely lucky, or whatever else. Nothing more, nothing less.

A short silence followed and Hisaaki apologized, ashamed by his lapse in judgement. He let his head sink down as he was occupied with his own thoughts," You are right, Hatsu-sensei. I should have viewed the situation from her perspective. It is surely not easy to fight your way back into life after such a tragedy."

Well, not particularly. All things considered, what was tragedy? What was suffering? What was pain? She was already used to it.

"Therefore, I am your sensei after all", sensei continued her small speech," Nevertheless, you are right, Hisaaki."

"Right? Right about what?" The boy was confused.

Yes, right about what? Asami was curious too.

Hatsu smiled uneasily," I would have normally refused someone with these sorts of 'credentials'. But unfortunately, the Hokage himself has vouched for he, subtly making it an order. And I can't exactly tell him off openly in front of everyone. Tsk tsk tsk, what a drag."

"But Hokage or not, if the girl doesn't soon get her ass here, then I will rip her apart, personally." The growing sense of impatience in the latter part was unmistakable and Hisaaki secretly hoped for the girl's own sake that she would appear soon, otherwise... there might be a few unpleasant consequences for her.

Sitting on a nearby rooftop, a certain observing Uchiha was, however, quite amused by what she heard. Was this really supposed to be a threat? A threat against her? Hehehehe. Asami was unable to suppress her giggle until she was finally satisfied. Anyway, Hatsu-sensei had a good point, it was time.

"Hello, excuse me. Are you Ikoma Hatsu, Ogawa Hisaaki and Sanada Katsusane?" a weak voice called them from behind and alerted the shinobi who were disturbed by the sudden presence. A presence that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere like a dangerous shadow lurking in the dark and had always been there, but simply wasn't noticed.

Eventually, Hisaaki also turned his head and he was surprised by what he saw, or rather who.

Hisaaki had to blink a few times wondering whether he wasn't unknowingly tricked by a Genjutsu, which wouldn't be the first time. Because the girl in front of him was simply angelic, a wonderful statue crafted from pure ivory and covered her with a lovely black kimono. The girl was a fairy, obviously. She had to be a fairy, some kind of fairy. There was no other explanation, no other possibility. Like he thought before, she was a fairy. Hisaaki nodded mentally not recognizing the obvious fallacy in his logic.

And she was fidgeting her two index fingers. She was so incredibly adorable in her current pose that she immediately claimed an altar in Hisaaki's heart and awakened all of his inactive big brother instincts. She was so small, so cute. He wanted to hug her and never let her go again.

Hisaaki failed to notice, however, that out of the corners of her eyes Asami gave him a series of strange looks. What was the boy thinking? Why wouldn't he stop staring? Mysterious. Was he perhaps … an idiot?

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Hatsu was staring, evaluating the newcomer. Who was the girl? And how the fuck was she able to sneak up on her? She was a Jonin.

"Errrrr, uhmmmmmm, errrrrr, I am your new, ehmmm, team member. I am, ehmmmm, Minami Asami. And I am, errrr, pleased to meet you" Her insecure voice grew weaker with every syllable until her words became almost inaudible while fidgeting with her fingers.

"So, you are Minami Asami, the girl the Hokage promised me" Hatsu took on a friendlier tone and lost any feelings of anger as if they had evaporated from one moment to the next. Nevertheless, she was still interiorly angry.

Hatsu didn't forget Asami's previous insolence, however, who didn't deem it necessary in the slightest to excuse herself for any of her continuous and inexplicable absences during their special training program. But Hatsu stood above such petty things and she would never pick on little children, albeit the temptation was understandably big.

The girl didn't give an answer and merely nodded in silence, which only reinforced Hatsu's initial impression of the girl. Asami was useless, completely useless and she had to make the best of the situation. Therefore, she decided to go easy on her and that the Hokage, the old bastard, was in for a serious discussion the next time she met him. What did he say again? She wouldn't disappoint her, right?

"Ahem. Because you clearly seem uncomfortable with introducing yourself, Asami, why don't you begin then, Katsusane, Hisaaki?" Hatsu smiled and encouraged Katsusane and Hisaaki who for some reason wore a dreamy expression on his face.

"As you obviously already know, I am Katsusane. And the idiot without a single working brain cell next to me is my best friend since my childhood, Hisaaki."

"Hey, I heard that", Hisaaki reacted in mock indignation.

"I know."

"Phew, whatever. I am Hisaaki and as you have heard, told by the humourless and cruel brick wall who is surprisingly also my best friend since a long time. And you, Asami?" The boy was enthusiastic as ever.

"Ehmmmmm, errrrrrr, uhmmm ", Asami struggled for words and remained silent instead.

"Ummmm, my favourite hobby is, errr, composing poems in my private garden, ummm, while enjoying the peace of nature around me. And I don't like people." The words required all of her available strength.

"Sounds great to me", Hisaaki replied happily.

"You actually believe that bullsh …, ehmm, I mean, you don't laugh about my not so shinobi-like passion like everyone else does?" Asami's confused eyebrow disappeared as quickly as it came and her face morphed into an expression of deep insecurity. Asami was fidgeting with her fingers and looked down at the sandy ground.

"I haven't really understood what you were saying. But I think it has to be something funny, if you enjoy it"

Hisaaki confidently declared, grinning like a fool, which earned him in Asami's mind immediately and without further consideration a big mental idiot tag . Hisaaki = idiot. Idiot = Hisaaki.

Hatsu led the discussion to a more productive topic, primarily because she was concerned about the well-being of her two students.

"Asami, I don't want to be rude. But I would like to know the hopefully good reasons you have for not attending our team training sessions? For example, yesterday."

She didn't believe it anymore, but perhaps there might be still some infinitesimal hope left that Asami wouldn't be total dead weight.

"Ummm, err, um, I couldn't gather the courage to participate and didn't want to bother you with the clumsy me. Therefore, I trained at home." The girl avoided their curious gazes and looked down to the ground.

From there on the conversation continued almost endlessly, to someone's great annoyance. Hatsu and the more annoying Hisaaki were trying her patience as well as her cover story. Perhaps it was just her, but she was somehow uncomfortable with sharing private information. The less was known about her, the better. Fortunately, she could deflect most of their questions with her standard repertoire of worthless statements and classics like "I don't know…", "I am not sure…", "Perhaps…", "Theoretically speaking, …", etc., etc.

Nevertheless, Asami was but a few moments away from exploding and igniting her stupid cover and improvised Hinata imitation with a canister of good old petroleum. Because she was by no means a good actor, yet she was able to maintain her composure for the time being.

Eventually, Team 3 made its way to the final testing room on the third floor of the academy. And as expected, they were the last ones.

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"Aha, look, I told you, Hisaaki, that we would be dead last, again like so many times before. All other participants have probably already entered the room", Katsusane proudly claimed his victory.

Hisaaki sighed in annoyance, "Have you really to be always a pessimist, Katsusane? Can you never think more positively?"

In the meanwhile, he didn't notice how Asami almost was furiously tipping on Hisaaki's shoulder, desperately calling for the unofficial team leader's attention. She was ignored many, many, many consecutive times and slowly she was therefore becoming aggressive.

"And that would be?"

"The advantage of coming late is that you don't have to stand in line, Katsusane. See, the entire floor is empty." Hisaaki earned a sign of resignation from his friend while he confidently approached a pair of shinobi standing guard in front of the room.

Two Chunin. One had a bandage across his face for no apparent reason other than stylistic purposes and he blocked his path, "Where do you think you are going?"

"Isn't this the room designated for the first part of the exam?", Hisaaki was confused and scratched his head. The number on the sign was 301. So, shouldn't this be the right room?

"Yeah, it is", answered the bandaged Chunin. The tipping subsided and Asami had a doubtful look on her face that went largely unnoticed.

Hisaaki tried to negotiate," Ehm, why don't you let us through then? You see, we are Genin and we…"

One of the Chunin interrupted him, "You don't get it, you brats. We don't want you to get through. You should quit while you still can. Because you don't have what it takes to be a Chunin."

"Exactly, being a Chunin means carrying responsibility and leading others. And to be honest. You are nothing more than a bunch of useless children pretending to play shinobi. And now piss off." The duo spoke consecutively, making their statements sound far more irritating than they actually were.

In Asami's opinion, their taunts were rather innocuous. Nevertheless, the duo was still blocking the way, her way and it didn't seem like they would move aside soon without applying a small amount of good old-fashioned brute force. Because she could solve this situation the soft or the hard way. And if they didn't move on their own, then she had to make them move. Asami stood inconspicuously in the background and observed the situation for the time being while clenching her fists.

Katsusane replied calmingly," Perhaps, we could solve the entire issue diplomatically …"

"Screw your fucking diplomacy, Katsusane. I am not about to allow myself being blocked by a pair of wannabe bullies pretending to be some sort of local pseudo gangsters trying to intimidate random Genin with harmless third-rate insults. Get immediately out of my sight, you with your pitiful delusions of grandeur, before I decide to kick your asses so fucking hard that you won't be able to walk a straight line for the entirety of your remaining miserable life."

"Do you get it? And now let me enter this damned room before I get really angry that these fucking morons of the village administration have given us the wrong room." Asami exploded and started her invective tirade. Seriously, who did they think they were todeny her passage?

The Uchiha opted for the much quicker direct brute force approach and ignored the possible collateral damage because time was of the essence at the moment. The exams were about to start soon and Asami hadn't the required patience to persuade these two via more civilized and refined means. They would part now or get a free ticket to the nearest infirmary, it was their decision.

The two guards remained silent and didn't dare to challenge the furious dragon in front of them. Because it wasn't their primary task to hurt any of the participants and the girl was actually quite scary, really scary. Hisaaki and Katsusane, however, were slightly stunned by her sudden change of personality and their both mouths hung so agape that they almost touched the floor. What happened just now? Was that really Asami?

The poor Hisaaki was brutally shoved aside by the feisty girl and was thus finally awakened from his stupor.

He was the first to regain his wits, which was a heroic effort considering the 180 degree turn her personality had taken, and somehow overlooked the major part of her threatening comment, "Asami, what do you mean by "giving us the wrong room?"

Asami calmed down again after her eruption and dedicated her attention to his question," What I want to say is that my original intention was from the beginning to inform you, Hisaaki, that we are on the wrong floor. We are on the second and not the third if you haven't noticed it. But apparently some of these idiots in the village administration has got the number wrong on our application form, tsk tsk tsk."

"Wrong floor?"

"Yes, shouldn't that have been obvious? On the sign is written 201. However, it appears we are nevertheless right here, otherwise these jerks here wouldn't stand here and block our way", the girl narrowed her eyes focusing on the two startled Chunin.

Hisaaki cleared his throat "Ahem, I don't want to disappoint you, but I think you should check your eyesight, Asami. Because there is clearly written the number 301, right, Katsusane?" His friend nodded in agreement, but he wasn't completely sure. In his opinion, something was weird here.

Eyesight? Was he really arguing with her, an Uchiha and Sharingan user, about eyesight? "Really? And I recommend you to check your eyesight, Hisaaki. Because I can see nowhere your ominous 201."

"Don't be childish, Asami. It is right there, ta-da, isn't it?" Hisaaki showed her the sign with both of his hands.

"Nope, it isn't", Asami contested coldly.

"It is."

"No, it isn't."

"It is!"

"No, it isn't!"

"It is."

"For the last time, you blind idiot, no, it isn't."

Luckily, Katsusane intervened before a perpetual fight between the two warring parties could break out and brought forward an idea, "Asami, do you have some kind of Kekkei Genkai or other ability that grants you immunity to Genjutsu?"

"No, not that I know of", she was indeed clueless in that case. And in the purely theoretical case that she possessed, *cough* Sharingan *cough* one, did he really think that she would tell him?

"Genjutsu, why that, Katsusane?", asked a perplexed Hisaaki.

"Haven't you noticed before how after the first floor came directly the third? We have somehow skipped the second floor, which shouldn't be possible. But I didn't think much about it, until now", the serious boy clarified.

"Now that you say it. You are right that it is indeed strange", Hisaaki seconded his opinion,

"And what do you think, Asami?"

"Well, I was wondering why you got us to the wrong floor and tried to alert you discreetly. But then we met two lovely guards here and they confirmed that this room is indeed the room we are searching for, which has to be correct. Because otherwise they would just stand stupidly around in the middle of nowhere watching an empty room and that seems highly unlikely in my opinion."

"However, if you, Hisaaki and Katsusane, see another number different from mine, then neither mine nor your theory can be factually correct, which means by exclusion that …", she turned around to the pair of Chunin who observed the scene interestedly.

Asami narrowed her eyes at the guards and her angry voice dropped any pretence of false friendliness," Tell me, my friends. What exactly is going on here? Because my patience is limited and I can assure you that is certainly not in your best interests."

A poof-like sound occurred and a cloud of smoke greeted them accompanied by some applause. The two Chuni morphed into a pair of men clothed in grey flat jackets.

"Not that bad actually. What do you think, Izumo?"

"A curious outcome certainly, Kotetsu." Izumo dissolved the Genjutsu.

Team 3 stared at them questioningly and demanded an answer, a good one.

"You see, this was a part of the exam to test if the participants could be fooled by a basic Genjutsu. And it seems that you have passed the test admirably", the bandaged Chunin explained.

"I think you should go to the right room now before the real test starts without you." Izumo gave them a reassuring smile and the three Genin finally left.

"Why did we even reveal ourselves, shouldn't we have tested their abilities a bit more actively, Izumo?" Kotetsu asked.

"Have you gone mad? Against that girl? I don't have any problem with you risking your life, but please don't involve me with it and don't expect me to come to your rescue. Didn't you noticed how she was emanating this dangerous aura? "

"Now that you say it, her aura was indeed kind of dangerous", Kotetsu remarked.

"Kind of dangerous? Her death glare probably puts the majority of Konoha's senior Jonin, not to say ANBU to shame", Izumo concluded incredulously.

"Ehmmmm, if you think so." Kotetsu wasn't very convinced by his partner's exaggerated fears. The latter was, however, relieved to have escaped an unfriendly confrontation with the girl in black like his instincts recommended him. Because that could have been an unpleasant experience.

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"Asami?", Hisaaki hesitantly inquired of the girl who had usurped in a truly unexpected coup d'état the leadership within their small team and was now ruling with an iron fist over her subjects, namely him and Katsusane. It was still beyond him how she precisely had done so? Asami was directly in front of them leading them to their new destination. Nevertheless, he wouldn't dare in his wildest dreams to question their little princess's supreme authority, which was simply indisputable for some mysterious reason. He didn't know why? But somehow her being in charge just felt … natural, which was strange.

"Yes, what is, Hisaaki?" the moody Uchiha replied with her abyss-like eyes which were staring back at him. Hisaaki had to admit that the current version of Asami was slightly scary, intimidating, and a few other things.

"Uhmmm, how shall put it? I think that both I and Katsusane might be interested in where all of your previous shyness went, Asami-chan? As far as I can remember, you couldn't get out any steady words but a few minutes ago. And now… Well, now you seem … to be a completely different person, Asami." Hisaaki smiled innocently, bewildered by the girl's sudden change of personality.

Asami stopped walking and addressed their concerns no matter how insignificant they might be, "Oh, the reason is simply that I am indeed a completely different person now. What you are currently witnessing is the real me, the real Asami." Or to be more precise a part of her, a fragment.

"Originally, I planned to hide my strength and lay low, but certain prior events have necessitated a change of pace and priorities, which means that from here on I will take a more active role." Asami's smile sent a mild shiver down Hisaaki's spine.

"And now follow me. As far as I know, the Chunin exams aren't waiting for us and we are a bit late", Asami encouraged her two teammates.

Fuck the original plan altogether. Playing the little timorous sheep hiding behind the scenes was neither her forte nor her favourite role. Concealing her identity and going undercover in general were never something she excelled in, she had always said, and everyone within the ANBU knew that perfectly well, the stupid Hokage included. She was not suited for these sort of complex long term infiltration missions. A passable generalist such as herself might be talented at many things, but she was surely not a factotum. She wasn't suited for infiltrations.

Especially, if the mission was so insipid and useless like this one. She could be tolerant and patient when the circumstances called for it. As long as there was a certain reason, purpose behind her actions, she was generally able to overlook a few annoyances. Because she didn't lack the necessary professionalism to put the mission before her personal emotions, which was a question of priorities.

Not in this case, however. Not when she was basically a better babysitter supervising a bunch of children. She was an ANBU and as an Uchiha she had her pride. And the Hokage could repeat as much as he wanted that this was an immensely important mission, but she would never believe him.

After all, the overall 'objective' was to watch for an unconfirmed, unspecified and unknown threat, which was evidently a lot of precise intel she could base her operation on. Look, Asami, I know that something will happen. But I don't know who, why, where, when and what. Your mission is to find out whatever it is, good luck.

Asami sighed mentally. Whatever, the entire mission bla bla bla was likely a pretence to start with. Anyway, a pretence to send her on a mission that she was supposed to fail on purpose.

She was ready to force her way through using brute force alone, and she would have beaten up those two assholes if Hisaaki hadn't intervened at just the right moment. Literally, everything was arranged neatly in order to remove her from the ANBU, arghhh. Nevertheless, she didn't understand why the old man wanted her out, why? Had she done anything specific to aggravate him besides her standard routine of ignoring and refusing idiotic orders on her missions? Bah, who knew.

Whatever, then let us facilitate the old man's efforts and have some fun in the process.

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Under a certain princess's unchallenged leadership, team Asami, formerly known as team 3, approached the correct room and passed a familiar spiky-silver-haired shinobi with a satisfied smile leaning against a wall. The Uchiha was curious. Kakashi, what was he doing here? Didn't he have a Genin team to manage… Oh, I see. So, he was probably participating too, interesting, interesting.

Asami stopped, however, in front of the closed entrance hearing an enthusiastic voice echoing from the inner of the room," Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. And you should all remember my name because I won't lose to any of you. Got it?!"

The girl furrowed an amused eyebrow. What was his name again, Uzumaki Naruto? Apparently, he hadn't changed much since the last time they met. He was stil an idiot. Asami slid the door open in a rather forceful manner and entered the room with her natural grace and an aura of a grim reaper.

Her black eyes swept across the room in search for her target, "Sweet is the war to the inexperienced. I am aware of the fact that the difference between indisputable bravery and blind foolishness can be sometimes delicate in nature."

"The bravest are certainly those who have the clearest vision of what obstacles lay before them on their arduous and miserable path, and nevertheless knowingly walk into their own demise out of necessity. A tragedy."

"So, who is the shouting idiot from before? Who is the idiot who fails to comprehend in his abyss of ignorance that these exams aren't a simple game, but a matter of life and death?"

Asami stared down the rows until her icy glare rested on a blonde Genin in an orange pyjama who stood among a group of ten people she remembered. She hadn't forgotten their faces and they shouldn't have forgotten hers, otherwise she would be a bit disappointed. After all, she had shared a classroom with them for a few years.

The boy slightly gulped," Are you, uhmmmm, the examiner?"

"I, the examiner? Hehehehe, I am pleased to meet your expectations in that regard. Fortunately for you, Uzumaki Naruto, I am not. No, I am not the examiner", the Uchiha giggled gracefully. Katsusane and Hisaaki meanwhile escorted their beautiful little black rose who had more than a few thorns. Each of them flanked one of her shoulders and both were exchanging worried looks. Because as much as they appreciated Asami's new personality and her new-found enthusiasm, she was just about to create a lot of trouble, for them. Didn't she see how everyone was staring at her and them? And the majority of the stares wasn't exactly friendly, not to say hostile with a mixture of cockiness.

Hisaaki gulped and whispered into her ears, "Asami, I don't want to interrupt you. But I really think you shouldn't provoke everyone present here. Look around."

The boy scratched his head uneasily and pointed at the mass of antagonistic looking ninja among which nine Genin stood out. Three Oto-nin by virtue of viciousness, three familiar Konoha shinobi, and three Genin from Sunagakure due to the red-haired emo kid with his massive Chakra reserves which were impossible to hide. Was he seriously a Genin?

"Provoke? You call that provoking, Hisaaki? Then let me introduce you to the ancient art of demagogic agitation, even though I might not be the best at it", the girl replied sweetly and accepted his suggestion. Asami took the opportunity presented to her and played along.

Hisaaki smiled to hide his uneasiness while Katsusane wasn't exactly delighted by his words that had only added napalm to the already extensive fire.

Asami greeted her audience with a pair of outstretched arms, which galvanized their ire further. Rich in hyperbolic theatrical pathos and her typical Uchiha arrogance, Asami initiated her little speech trying to piss off everyone as much as humanly possible. What could they do after all? Attack her? Kill her? Hehehehehehehe, exactly, nothing.

"You want us to surrender? Then bring it on if you can. Because we will most definitely not back down and I surely won't lose against a bunch of amateurs who can't even comprehend the extent of their own inferiority in their wildest dreams."

"Was that what you wanted? If yes, then you have succeeded brilliantly, Hisaaki", the discontent Katsusane voiced his anger.

"Ehmmmmm, I didn't precisely expect that. It seems that I have miscalculated, hahahaha."

Hisaaki was slightly concerned about the team's future, their future. Now he could only hope that Asami could back up her words, otherwise they were royally fucked.

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	19. Arc III Chapter III

**III**

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 **Arc III Chapter III**

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"Are you an idiot, Asami? Sheesh, was that really necessary? We have known each other for hardly an hour, and you are already causing me more trouble than Hisaaki in all the many years of our friendship, which is frankly quite an accomplishment." Katsusane eyed her angrily as he didn't particularly approve of her action for inexplicable reasons.

"Uhmmmmm, what do you mean, Katsusane? What are you talking about?" The girl tilted head cutely and tipped her chin with a single finger. Asami radiated an aura of blissful ignorance and Katsusane nearly bought her act, but the thick sarcasm in her voice was just impossible to overlook. Asami was playing with him and Katsusane accepted her challenge without a second thought, which was in retrospective a rather stupid decision. Because in his opinion the situation couldn't get possibly worse, but he was wrong as he quickly found out.

"Have I to spell it out for you, Asami?" Katsusane was furious and he showed it.

"Please, please, Katsusane, tell me, I want to know", Asami squealed and played the little girl card so annoyingly well. Katsusane ground his teeth. The amount of arrogance she had was simply staggering. Asami was worse than your proverbial Uchiha.

In the meanwhile, none of the observing Genin neither considered nor dared to intervene because the display in front of their eyes was simply so absurd, so completely absurd, as if the entire performance was staged. The scene was so extremely ludicrous and ridiculous.

The majority of them remained in their seats and wondered behind their dispassionate faces. What the fuck was going on? Wasn't the girl a serious case of mental disorder. At the beginning this boy called Naruto and now this Asami who was casually taunting them as if she was one of the most dangerous shinobi in existence. What was wrong with her? Seriously, what was wrong with the little princess?

Katsusane answered her rhetoric question, "You genius have somehow got an entire horde of furious shinobi after us, on your own if I might add."

"Ahhhhhhh, that is what you mean." Fake realisation dawned on Asami and Katsusane deeply regretted to have started this discourse, but he nevertheless continued.

"Yes." He nodded sighing in exasperation. The girl was digging him an early grave.

"Hehehehe, it is kind of a special ability of mine." Asami chuckled, totally undisturbed by all the anger directed towards her. After all, why should she be concerned? In the end, the anger of a few children was nothing to be concerned about.

"To answer your initial question, you are right. My speech was absolutely unnecessary and by all standards imaginably stupid, Katsusane." Asami admitted wholeheartedly without any feeling of guilt.

"Why the fuck did you do that when you were fully aware of the disastrous consequences?" Katsusane was rightfully enraged by her uncaring attitude, which potentially put their very lives at risk for nothing besides stroking her massive ego.

He and his teammates were by no means the weakest shinobi under the shining sun, but they surely hadn't the absolute suicidal desire to fight against a full room of experienced Genin because a certain girl couldn't keep her damn mouth shut.

While Hisaaki, who clearly didn't like the present situation as a consequence of the numerous murderous glares that were thrown at them, may have enjoyed some slight mischief from time to time, Katsusane didn't share such a notion.

Asami smiled and swirled around her black kimono following bewitchingly her movements.

"Why? The reason is quite simple, Katsusane, I don't care. In the centre of my tender girlish heart I am a deeply decadent person. I adore the superfluous, the irrational, the eccentric, the aesthetic, the heroic, the tragic."

Asami offered Katsusane and Hisaaki a sardonic smile," And to be honest, these Chunin exams are from my perspective nothing more than a playground, a senseless quarrel between children who can barely use a kunai, not to mention a shuriken."

Asami turned to the staring crowd," Before my eyes, all your skills are insignificant. Your techniques irrelevant. Your past inconsequential. Like mentioned before, you are just amateurs."

The last part of the sentence echoed through the air and Hisaaki paled more with every single word, while Katsusane was about to have a nervous breakdown. She had done it, Asami had done it. They were all dead and they could practically bury themselves on the spot.

Asami clearly noticed the desperation of her two team mates, which she was in a certain sense responsible for. Therefore, the Uchiha granted the duo a glimpse on the more amiable side of her personality. Nevertheless, Asami wouldn't have been Asami if she hadn't kept an eye on the crowd behind her, especially three suspicious Oto-nin who merited special attention. She could see the boiling anger in their eyes from afar and hoped that they didn't plan to do anything funny, because otherwise…

Furthermore, her Chakra had detected an interesting group of concealed onlookers at the front of the classroom. Among them was a familiar signature which Asami vaguely recognized from her time spent with the torture and interrogation department. If this wasn't Ibiki? If he remembered her too? Probably not.

"Except for you, Katsusane, Hisaaki . You can use kunai and shuriken, or rather, I hope so at least." Hisaaki and Katsusane gave her an incredulous stare.

"And if you are concerned about our more than 'unfavourable' odds and our security, then don't worry. Don't forget that you have the elite of the elite of the elite on your side. And I can assure you that I will, if necessary, bring you through this entire mess alive, right?" Asami radiated an aura unwavering loyalty and gone was her sarcastic self. Instead, a perplexed Hisaaki and Katsusane were confronted with a reassuring smile.

The question was, however, where all her confidence was springing from. Even though Hissaki's morale was boosted by the girl's performance in front of him and he was sure now that their chances of dying were 1% lower than before, Hisaaki had just a tiny grain of doubt.

"Ehmmm, I don't want to be rude, but according to my knowledge, you haven't completed a single and I repeat, a single C-rank mission in your entire life, Asami. And haven't you been inactive for almost two full years now?"

Asami scratched her head cutely and defended herself with an uneasy laugh, "Yeeessssss, that is indeed true, I have actually never completed a C-rank mission successfully in my life. I have totally forgotten that you two know nothing, nothing at all." Hisaaki had overall good reasons to doubt her, but he just didn't know what she knew.

Asami was cursing at her own stupid carelessness. How could she forget something so elemental? She had really screwed up this time, hadn't she? She was so focused on bragging like never before that she failed to consider that nobody present could possibly know of her ANBU past, which was in this case problematic.

Asami facepalmed and desperately tried to somehow repair the damage done, "Look, Katsusane, Hisaaki, our situation might look a bit grim from a certain perspective, but I can assure you that…"

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"Don't even think about it. If you three plan to pull off anything funny in front of me, then I can personally guarantee you that you three will be the first ones in this room to feel the cold steel of my kunai." Asami stared with narrowed eyes at the three Oto-nin. The girl was curious. How would they react? Would the Oto-nin team ignore her and attack, or would they follow her recommendation and retreat their fangs?

"So you can also bite and not only bark", the tallest Oto-nin replied tauntingly together with a mummy right next to him.

"Bite? Bite? Bite you say", Asami chuckled amused," Isn't that a bit rich coming from someone like you who couldn't even scratch me in a million years? So, come and bring it on if you can. Because I am waiting." Although you should never say never, the Uchiha seriously doubted the probability that the Genin could realistically harm her in any way.

"Aarghhhh." The furious boy pulled out a kunai, but Asami predicted his move and decided to resolve this senseless quarrel provided the proctors played along. Otherwise, it could get potentially messy from here on. For them.

"But I think we have to delay our confrontation to another time, because I finally want to put an end to this bothersome exam. Don't you think so too, Ibiki?" It was a gamble, but only a small one. And Asami had Fortuna this day on her side.

A sudden cloud of smoke revealed a group of grey coats and a slightly curious Ibiki wearing his beloved black coat and his typical grin. "So one of the candidates has actually spotted us, huh? Impressive, truly impressive. But I am more surprised that you know my name too. How does it come so?" The Jonin set his suspicious eyes on Asami and addressed her directly across the room. It was one thing to detect them, but how did she precisely know that it was him?

Asami answered with a saccharine smile," How? Let's say that it is a trade secret. And I hope you will understand that a good Kunoichi you should never reveal her best tricks."

Ibiki narrowed his eyes, which was, however, quite useless as he quickly found out. The girl was visibly unimpressed by his stare and her granite-like face didn't yield in the slightest. The girl was good, annoyingly good. What was her name again? Asami, wasn't it? Asami, Asami, Asami… He remembered the name.

Ibiki's grin widened further and he looked at the girl from a new perspective. So, this was the girl that the Hokage had recommended. As far as he could tell, she was certainly quite remarkable.

He decided to try out another secret special interrogation method in this case, which was more effective than you might think, asking nicely." Really, can't you tell me how you detected us?"

Asami crossed her arms and furrowed a doubting eyebrow. She didn't budge an inch.

Ibiki smiled friendly, or rather what he considered friendly," Please."

The Uchiha sighed and surrendered eventually, "Okay, okay. Your name? Well, why shouldn't I know the infamous and widely renowned commanding officer of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force, the Special Jonin Morino Ibiki?"

"Moreover, my team and I had a little squabble with your fake guards on the second floor, and didn't they wear grey uniforms? And as you might know, there is only one branch in the entire village which wear grey uniforms, our friends from the intelligence division. Ergo, it has either to be the Interrogation Force headed by you. And apparently my hunch wasn't off."

Ibiki laughed with a satisfied grin plastered on his scarred face, "Hahahaha, I have to admit that you are one of the brightest Genin I have met over the years. Your attitude even reminds me of a certain girl I had the pleasure to work with a few times in the past." Like he had said before, she was good, and he wasn't wrong. And it was true, Asami reminded him of a certain ANBU. Their stature, their character, their way of acting and speaking, their style of clothing were all surprisingly similar. What a strange coincidence, but the world was a strange place.

Nevertheless, Ibiki returned quickly to his normal serious expression and continued with a scary grin, "Whatever, we have wasted enough time as things stand. Everyone take your seats. The Chunin exams are about to start."

Asami listened and strode forward to take her place. Hisaaki and Katsusane followed immediately after their princess and passed many, many, many angry stares directed at them. Hisaaki gulped and tried to hide behind Asami-hime, which didn't work very well considering that Asami was two heads shorter than he. Nevertheless, he tried.

Exceptions clearly existed, however, and a few individuals retained their outward calmness, especially the Suna trio and Lee's team.

And her former classmates were split in different groups. Shino was silent and emotionless as ever. Shikamaru was annoyed and simply ignored her. Choji was eating a bag of potato chips and enjoyed it.

Naruto gave her a challenging look and Kiba followed his example together with Akamaru. They were ready to fight, which was obviously the stupidest decision they could make.

Sakura and Ino both crossed their arms out of spite. Sasuke smirked in contempt, convinced by his own Uchiha superiority.

And Hinata was just Hinata and just as pitiful and innocuous as always.

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* * *

Hahaha, the written test was surely one of the funnier tests she ever had. Especially the evil-looking proctors were funny, as if they could actually scare anyone. She had to praise them, however, for the realistic and convincing scenery and their impressive acting. Because she almost bought their badass all-seeing shinobi act.

But in the end, these shinobi were only Chunin and Asami was a little disappointed by their extremely lenient behaviour. Despite the fact that they were just there to spot cheaters, they oversaw only obvious acts of continuous cheating and that was a bit disconcerting. Because come on, if it had been her, then she would have let the entire room fail three times over. But she had to remember that she was in possession of pretty unfair advantages compared to them.

After all, she was a very proficient sensor-type, which made any attempt to cheat right under her eyes by using a Jutsu quite difficult, not to say outright impossible. And not forgetting, Asami had an excellent pair of eyes, *cough* Mangekyo Sharingan Asami special edition *cough*, that made spotting as well as cheating pretty easy.

The truth was, however, that the latter wasn't even necessary, if you had just a bit of a brain. Because the questions weren't actually that difficult. Surely they were here and there a bit challenging and tricky, but in general they weren't impossible to solve from a purely academic standpoint, even though Ibiki said that they were supposed to be unsolvable for normal Genin. Yes, sure, sure, sure.

Keep in mind that both Genin as well as Chunin weren't exactly the pinnacle of formal education and human intelligence. For example, she was still wondering how the majority of Genin were even able to write down a single sentence, but what should you expect otherwise from children with barely six years of insufficient school education. It was clear that the vast majority of Genin were intellectually a lost cause.

In the end, however, she found out that the written test was totally irrelevant regardless, and that was the funniest thing about the exam. It didn't matter whether you had filled out all the answers or not, because the entire test was just a farce to test your mental fortitude. Ultimately, only the strength of your will was decisive or stupidity to correctly answer the final tenth question.

But that didn't matter anymore because Katsusane, Hisaaki and she had obviously passed the exam with expected ease and now were on their way to the really scary Forest of Death. Asami rolled her eyes. Forest of Death, what a silly name. In her personal experience, the forest was neither as deadly nor as dangerous as claimed, but only full of annoying insects and nothing else..

"Captain, why did you order us to pack food supplies for an entire month?" Hisaaki addressed their more or less established team leader in a slightly mocking tone.

Asami ignored the subtle nuance of anger in his voice as she marched ahead, the 44 training ground, or more colloquially known as the Forest of Death.

"I didn't, my explicit orders were to prepare yourself well and not to bring enough food to feed an entire village for a year", Asami countered, annoyed and honestly surprised that Hisaaki had really followed her advice.

While Katsusane was only lightly equipped, Hisaaki was loaded up with a giant heavy backpack resting on his shoulders. Asami could have probably helped Hisaaki by stuffing his luggage in one of her untold storage scrolls in order to not be slowed down by him.

Yes, the Uchiha had many of them, truly many, and a few were just placed within her pouch. It would have been a simple task to liberate Hissaki from his burden, but Asami didn't.

"Aarghhhh", Hisaaki grunted under the heavy weight of his baggage and a certain girl giggled, enjoying a moment of pure schadenfreude.

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* * *

Anko, the remarkably memorable violent woman from yesterday, finished her little inspiring terror speech. Seriously, had she nothing better to do than scaring little children? That was neither funny nor pedagogic useful.

Anko was only interrupted by Naruto who had the tendency to get continuously into unforeseen trouble. And a creepy shinobi from Kusagakure with way too much Chakra in her opinion, or rather way more than a Genin was supposed to have. Because she wasn't stupid and if he was really a Genin, then she was the Hokage.

Asami decided to keep an eye on both of them. According to several rumours, Naruto was after all the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi, and a Jinchuriki always merited special attention regardless of how incapable the boy was.

And the rumours were indeed correct, the son of the Fourth was undoubtedly the real Jinchuriki and not some sort of decoy. Because it partially explained why there was a giant alien ball of red energy sealed right inside a boy which was obviously not his own Chakra.

What concerned Asami, however, was the fact that him being the Jinchuriki was in fact an open secret Someone in the intelligence department had screwed up royally in this case. Because it was more than a minor intelligence blunder that such confidential information was readily available to the general public.

Anyway, Anko had made quite an energetic entry by jumping through a window at the end of the written exam and as a result broke it. Seriously, what was up with shinobi and their beloved property damage? Couldn't she just use the door like any normal person? No, she couldn't and Asami always thought that she was eccentric.

Unbelievable as it might sound, Anko was indeed their next proctor and tasked with supervising the second part of the exam. Apparently, each one of the present 27 teams would receive either an Earth or Heaven Scroll, and the primary objective was to acquire the missing scroll by eliminating a hostile team, which should be easy-peasy for her. Then you walk peacefully to the tower and enter the building. In general, it was a standard free-for-all and they all would fight over a scrap of senseless paper.

Asami inspected her teammates. Katsusane and Hissaki didn't appear to be exactly motivated, but at least they didn't let themselves intimidate by Anko's bla- dangerous forest - bla- poisonous plants and animals - bla- only half will survive- bla. Asami was quite pleased. Because high morale was fundamental for good unit cohesion and primarily she couldn't stand the idea that she had to carry a pair of crybabies throughout the exam.

The trio received their scroll and were about to walk to their predetermined starting position, but not before Asami grasped the opportunity to provoke her enemies just a bit to ignite their spirit of rivalry.

Asami occupied the nearby podium and cleared her throat. In her own humble opinion, her voice was not really suited for these sorts of speeches. Too innocent, too high-pitched, too child-like, not threatening enough. But Asami did nevertheless her best, "Ahemmmm, attention! I have to make an announcement to my fellow Genin concerning this excruciatingly boring contest."

Her action captured the attention of the assembled Genin and Anko who grinned from the side lines.

"My team and I will directly march to the designated tower in about, depending on our exact travelling speed, 20 minutes."

"What!", Hisaaki gasped incredulously. 10 km in 20 minutes? Was Asami crazy? Did she want to kill them? Asami stared at her disbelieving partner who was still shouldering a heavy backpack.

"You are actually right, Hisaaki, that is far too much time. 10 kilometres in 20 minutes, that is a walk in the park. Even my grandma in a wheelchair would be able to accomplish that if she was alive. Well, we will reduce our time to 10 minutes then, which should provide us with a bit of a challenge, right, Hisaaki, Katsusane?" Asami smiled happily at them, but what she said wasn't friendly at all. And it slowly dawned on Hisaaki that deep down in her core Asami might be evil.

"Anyway, I am a lazy person and I don't like working overtime", the Uchiha took a scroll out from her pouch and presented it to her audience, "As you may see, as long as you aren't blind, I hold in my right hand a Heaven Scroll. Because I don't have the intention to pass five full days in a stupid godforsaken forest hiding in the green, camouflaging myself as a bush with mud spread all over my face, I will make a special offer and make it easy for you and me."

"My team will take a position before the tower, just in front of the entrance to be exact, you can't miss us. And we will patiently wait for you there. If you want to try your luck and quickly finish this part of the exam like me, then you should pay us a friendly visit to challenge us, that is provided you have an Earth Scroll. However, I warn you that you shouldn't expect to defeat me in combat. So, if you plan or hope to somehow pass this exam, then do forget my humble proposal and instead stay at home."

Asami turned her head to both of her teammates. "Hisaaki, Katsusane, I am finished. So, let's go. Because the 10 kilometres won't run themselves, or at least they don't tend to do that in my personal experience."

Asami left the scene and her companions followed her quickly to escape a furious crowd. Except for a few selected individuals who either enjoyed the show whole heartily, *cough* Anko *cough* or a certain Kusagakure shinobi who was intrigued by the girl's little performance. Orochimaru licked his lips. What an interesting specimen she was.

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	20. Arc III Asami-chan's War College II

**III**

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 **Arc III Asami-chan's War College II**

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 **Lecture: Tactical and operational organisation of Army and ANBU: Ranks and units**

 **organised by the High Command of the ANBU for new ANBU recruits and educational purposes**

 **Lecturer: ANBU Col. Minami Asami replacing ANBU Maj. Gen. Hyuga Toshisada due to him being injured by an explosion**

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Well, I don't have much time today as I am supposed to be somewhere else. Therefore, we will get over with this as fast as possible.

Everyone who isn't blind yet should have a sheet currently lying in front of them. And said sheet should have three columns, otherwise you have got the wrong one. The first column is obviously dedicated to the unit designations, plus the according symbology. The second column informs you about the unit composition, while the third provides you with the rank of CO in charge of the unit.

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 **Army (Army Reserve included): Ranks and units**

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 **Unit** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ **Strength (commissioned officers excluded)** ∙∙∙∙∙ **Commanding Officer**

 **Ø** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 1 = 1 Shinobi ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-1 Shinobi (Private)

● Team ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4 = Team leader 1 l + 3 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-2 Team leader (Corporal)

●● Squad ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 8 = 1 Squad leader + 1 Medic + 6 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-3 Squad leader (Sergeant)

●●● Platoon ∙∙∙ 40= 5*8 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-1 Lieutenant

* * *

Team, squad and platoon are the units of our beloved Army friends which you will probably encounter and work with most of the times. As long as no Fourth Shinobi World War breaks out or there are no extraordinary circumstances, you will practically never come in contact with a formation beyond the company or battalion level.

The first two units, team and squad, are normally led by a non-commissioned officer who is generally the most experienced Chunin available, or in rare cases even a Genin. Keep in mind, however, that I am using the words "normally" and "generally", because the truth is that the hierarchy that I give you now is solely a standard template and by no means something immutable set in stone, not to say that the proper chain of command is often completely ignored by the majority of shinobi and the lower ranks basically do what they want.

And as a matter of fact, don't be surprised if you encounter one day a Lieutenant leading a squad or a team and a Major, a Colonel or even a Brigade General upwards leading a simple platoon, which happens quite often among the Army and the ANBU.

Because, from time to time, these people have to actively work for their money too and all three branches are generally quite top-heavy, which means that there are way, way, way, way too many officers and not enough grunts to command.

Otherwise, the majority of the upper ranks would be forced to sit around somewhere in the HQ all the day due to the fact that they are blocked from performing any mission during their active service time.

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 **I** Company ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 200 = 5*40 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-2 Captain

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-3 Major

 **II** Battalion ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 800 = 4*200 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-4 Lieutenant Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

 **III** Regiment ∙∙∙∙ x = x*800 (mostly ad hoc formations) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

* * *

And now we come to the larger types of formations, which are, as mentioned before, mainly deployed during war times, Company, Battalion and Regiment.

The Company is, together with the Battalion to a certain degree, generally regarded as the smallest operational unit that can act autonomously without any further support.

The Regiment is, as written above, on the other hand primarily an ad hoc formation that consists of by a varying number of Battalions depending on the situation and necessity, or to keep a long story short, anything ranging from 1600 to 3200 men is a Regiment these days.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **X** Brigade∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4,000 = 5*800 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-7 Major General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-8 Lieutenant General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

 **XX** Division∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 16,000 = 4*4,000 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

 **XXX** Army∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ the entirety of the Army ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Chief of Staff of the Army: OF-9 General

* * *

Due to the fact that the Army has purely administrative purposes and no practical ones,the Brigade and the Division are the largest formations that exist in the shinobi world.

While the former is still in active use, albeit extremely rare, the latter has long since fallen out of favour and is today practically out of use as it is too cumbersome, too immobile. As a matter of fact, the Division continues to exist solely because of formal and traditional reasons in the form of the Army Reserve Division.

Because not even a single time in history, neither in the First Shinobi World War, in the Second Shinobi World War, nor in the Third Shinobi World War, any of the belligerents was capable of assembling a force resembling a division. The reason was that no side had simply the necessary reserves and numbers to field an entire division.

For example, the biggest formation that was ever formed was the allied Konoha/ Suna strike force battling the Third Raikage during the Third Shinobi World War. This strike force was a combined brigade which only consisted of 4 Konoha and 3 Suna battalions, barely 4,800 men.

And not these purely fantastic 10,000 men, which are a product of classical propaganda and exaggerating storytelling. And in comparison, the current total strength of Konoha´s standing army is a single brigade. Yeah, you heard me right, a single brigade.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **ANBU and Special Forces: Ranks and Units**

* * *

 **Unit** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ **Strength (commissioned officers excluded)** ∙∙∙∙∙ **Commanding Officer**

 **Ø** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 1 = 1 ANBU ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ ANBU = OF-2 Captain

● Team ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4 = Team leader 1 l + 3 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Team leader = OF-2 Captain

●● Squad ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 8 = 1 Squad leader + 1 Medic + 6 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Squad leader = OF-3 Major

●●● Platoon ∙∙∙ 40= 5*8 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-4 Lieutenant Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

* * *

 **I** Company ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 200 = 5*40 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-7 Major General

 **II** Battalion ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 400 = 2*200 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-8 Lieutenant General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

 **III** Regiment ∙∙∙∙ x = x*800 (mostly ad hoc formations) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

* * *

 **XXX** ANBU ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ the entirety of the ANBU ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Chief of Staff of the ANBU: OF-9 General

* * *

As you might have noticed quickly, the basic composition is almost the same and there no major, none at all to be precise, differences compared to the Army except for our naturally higher ranks, which the Army grunts envy us for because every ANBU has automatically the authority to overrule any Army Lieutenant, in theory at least. Because I tell you that reality is quite different.

And except for the size of an ANBU battalion, which is clearly smaller due to our smaller numbers in general. In contrast to the Army and the Reserve especially, we can't count on huge numbers of bodies because we obviously don't have the manpower.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Now we get to the juicy part, how you get your promotions and what you should to do to climb up the ladder as fast as possible. Well, in this case, I will be a bit gracious and give you some personal advice, which should be useful to most of you.

Officially, you need to have leadership qualities, ability, intelligence and whatever else to get promoted. However, I will be honest with you newbies, that is all bullshit, complete and utter bullshit, forget it, simply forget it.

Because otherwise the majority of the officer corps would be unemployed by tomorrow morning or at least be demoted immediately, and I would be Maj. Gen. already, which I am not only because in the eyes of these cocksuckers above me "I am currently too young with my 13 years" for such a mentally taxing position and other cheap excuses to keep me away from power. And last but not least, because I have no balls, literally and not figuratively speaking.

Anyway, to get back to the original topic, you require neither leadership nor ability, intelligence to a certain degree perhaps, to advance through the ranks. Instead, what you need are either a Jonin rank, pure strength, or classical subterfuge.

If you have at least one or a combination of two of these qualities, then I can promise you that you will make it easily to a Colonel like me or even higher depending on your luck.

The Jonin rank grants you normally a guaranteed Lieutenant or Captain rank without much trouble.

Strength is necessary in the sense that you are such a powerful shinobi that the higher-ups can't simply ignore you anymore. Get extremely strong and you will get automatically promoted along the way.

If you lack strength, then you have to use your head instead. Therefore, our last trait is subterfuge, or backstabbing to be exact. What I mean, is that you have to be capable of the subtle art of blaming others for your own mistakes and the ancient technique of alienating your responsibility to someone else. Therefore, ready your dagger and prepare your cloak and fight your way through the snake pit. But don't attempt to pull that on me, because I can promise you already that you will regret it and I will make your life a living hell.

If you want to go beyond the rank of Colonel, however, then good old clan connections are essential, they are virtually everything and without them you are fucked so hard you can't possibly imagine it. Despite the fact that nobody will ever admit it openly, nepotism and clientelism are in reality an extremely common occurrence within Konoha's military as well as bureaucratic apparatus. In fact, it is common to such an extent that specific posts have almost become hereditary and are entirely depended on your lineage.

A good example is the Army that is traditionally the territory of more combat related clans like the Akimichi, Sarutobi, Senju, Hyuga and the Nara who continuously produce an surprising amount of high ranking Army officers.

ONI is dominated by the Yamanaka and other minor clans that hold on to their little fortress with stupendous fanaticism and rarely allow any outsiders to enter their exclusive circle.

And among the ANBU the Uchiha together with the Aburame were normally the ones who called the big shots. The Uchiha are, however, not able to do so anymore for obvious reasons.

In conclusion, to attain any of these higher posts, you have to have inevitably either the right blood running through your veins or various influential persons within the clans on your side no matter how talented or competent you might be.

So, if anyone among you isn't of "noble" birth and aims high, forget it or prepare yourself for a lot of ass-kissing. The only option to circumvent this obstacle for non-clan members without a wide network is to get, yes, exactly, even stronger. Kage or high Jonin level should be more than sufficient enough to earn you a comfortable place somewhere in upper echelons of this corrupt mafia. The issue is, however, that I doubt that a single one among you will achieve such a level of strength, but good luck to anyone who wants to try it anyway.

As a consequence of said facts, many commanding positions aren't distributed according to sensible criteria like competence and ability. Instead, these positions are often given to clan-backed candidates and other favourites who are, how shall I put it nicely, often a rather suboptimal choice, not to say an outright danger to the continuous survival of their subordinates.

In my experience, these idiots tend to be prone to brute force solutions and costly frontal assaults without much deliberation and any sort of planning, apart from being drunk by their thirst for quick glory.

Hmmmm, if I think about it now carefully, then the disastrous state of our armed forces is actually quite concerning. And considering the fact that we have lost with the Uchiha clan a not insignificant amount of our war potential and that the Senju have practically died out over last few years…

Nah, these are thoughts for another day. Until next week then, the lecture will be about "Small unit tactics: The concentrity of the attack and eccecentrity of the defence".

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Author's note:**

Now Konoha has finally a more or less proper military, but not necessarily a good one as you can see. I have given them the type of military that a clan-based martial society missing social mobility would most likely produce, one that is certainly lacking in many areas.

If you don't believe me that such things are possible, then look at the amount of infighting between the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, which is almost the stuff of legends and honestly quite entertaining to read sometimes. Furthermore, both branches have historically partially suffered from similar problems as Konoha above.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	21. Arc III Chapter IV

**III**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Author's note:**

In this chapter we have a little flashback and we get short glimpse into Asami's ANBU past.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc III Chapter IV**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Heavy snow covered the forest which were clad in crystallised water like sugar. The entire land as far as the eye could see was reigned by the harsh forces of winter which enveloped everything with a thick blanket of frozen white and icy cold. Nature had morphed into a cold desert, seemingly hostile to any form of life, their very presence. But nevertheless, signs of life still existed among the trees and these people refused to bow down to the forces of nature. Trapped in an endless silvan labyrinth of ice, a squad of ANBU was currently moving through the trees with frightening speed, desperately running for their life.

"We have to move faster, Konosuke. They are probably right behind us, Captain", Hachiro, his second in command, pointed out with a small degree of desperation in his voice.

"I know, Hachiro, I know. Konosuke's voice was strained by the accumulating fatigue. He was tired, and the rest of his squad as well. They had to get some rest, immediately, but that wasn't possible. They had to carry on.

"Where are Masaaki and Yusuke? Shouldn't they have already returned, Hachiro?"

"No idea."

"Haven't seen them."

"Dead, perhaps?", echoed a chorus of voices through the frozen wood.

"Masaaki and Yusuke were both killed half an hour ago after you had ordered them to engage the enemy in order to gain us additional time. Sadly, they weren't able to fall back and were eliminated as a consequence. Masaaki met his end by an incoming blade, while Yusuke was hit by an explosive tag or something along those lines", their youngest ANBU answered in a dispassionate tone, colder than the freezing air surrounding them.

Behind her Tiger mask which appeared somehow too big for her, Asami was just a little girl clothed in a white innocent looking fur coat. Nevertheless, the girl was officially an ANBU and now one of them.

She wasn't even 13-years-old, but the severity of their situation and the death of her comrades didn't bother her in the slightest. The girl simply accepted their death in a fatalistic manner, which mildly concerned Konosuke. Asami could be his daughter, but her heart was already harder than stone and colder than ice. Did she feel anything at all?

"How do you know that, Asami?" Konosuke fished for further information while unconsciously increasing their pace gradually.

"Well, I saw how they when I briefly glimpsed back after their Chakra signatures had suddenly disappeared", Asami confirmed their death and displayed again her famously good eyesight.

Not that Konosuke was complaining about it, because it was always useful to have someone on your side with such excellent visual perception and who was simultaneously a sensor-type. But sometimes it almost felt as if they had an actual Doujutsu user among them, which was often disturbing to say the least. Her eyes saw further than what should be normally possible and with a scary precision which couldn't be considered normal even for talented shinobi.

Asami was, however, obviously not a Hyuga. And she couldn't be an Uchiha considering that the Uchiha clan was nearly extinct these days. So, what was Asami's secret?

"Why haven't you informed me until now, Asami?", Konosuke regretted his decision to send two good friends to their death by ordering them to delay the pursuing Kiri-nin. But times were hard and drastic measures had to be taken. Nevertheless, Konosuke knew that they were running out of time and the Kiri-nin were getting closer and closer.

His squad was simply not fast enough because they were slowed down by Norogumi and Karen who had both been heavily injured. And it was clear that both wouldn't be able to maintain their current speed any longer if they didn't reach the assembly point soon. Konosuke needed time. But where should he get this time from?

"Informed about what?" Asami wondered and tilted her mask.

"About their deaths", Konosuke replied slightly angered by her nonchalant attitude.

"Ah, I understand. Sure, sure, I could have, but I believe that doing so would have helped us little and would only harm morale, right? Masaaki and Yusuke are gone and currently we have more important concerns than mourning two corpses, providing that is we don't intend to join them sooner than later in the afterlife, Cap-tain", Asami needlessly stretched his title.

"Arghhhh." Konosuke ground his teeth. Once again, the girl indirectly attacked him and his superfluous sentimentality. Deep beneath her beautiful outer shell and layers of white fluffy fur, Asami was a vicious little devil.

Asami continued in a sarcastic tone and warned him, "Moreover, I would strongly recommend that you slightly increase our pace, otherwise we will soon make contact with a few very sharp kunai. Because we have a very, very, very angry bunch of Kiri-nin right behind us. And as far as I can tell, they are rapidly closing the distance between us. In short, we should really hurry up, Konosuke."

The last part was spoken in a forceful manner and not with her typical humorous note. This was not a mere casual suggestion.

Konosuke countered, enraged, "We can't. Don't you see that Norogumi and Karen are far too weak? They will never be able to keep up with us."

Didn't Asami recognize in what condition they were? Norogumi could barely keep up with them as was and he had to be supported by Hachiro and Aneko, while Karen had lost a lot of blood and it was a miracle that she was still conscious.

"I know, I know. Tsk tsk tsk, you don't have to tell me that, Konosuke. But I think I have a quick and effective solution for our little problem", Asami drew her beloved sword and Konosuke's eyes grew immediately wide. The ANBU feared the worst. No, no, she surely didn't plan to kill them, right? She didn't and Konosuke sighed in relief.

Asami stopped on a firm branch and so did the rest of her confused squad. Using her Chakra, the steel of her blade glimmered a pure white and it indicated that something was about to happen.

"Konosuke, I will confront them and delay their advance while you retreat", Asami declared laconically and prepared to leave.

"By saying confronting them, what do you mean?" Konosuke reacted, bewildered, although he actually understood exactly what she meant. As annoying as she was, he didn't like the idea of sacrificing yet another life.

"You know what I intend, Konosuke. Either someone stops them or everyone here dies", Asami's voice was as dispassionate and unyielding as always. "Alternatively, we can still leave Norogumi and Karen behind, but I don't think you would ever consider that option no matter how reasonable the standpoint might be, right?"

"Uhmmmmmmm …", Konosuke hesitated. Asami might be strong, but being strong enough to face the approaching Kiri-nin head on alone was another question altogether.

"Let it be, Konosuke. I have always said it, you are too soft for this job because you lack the will to make the hard decisions that are sometimes required." Asami looked up into the sky and noticed with a smile that it had suddenly started to snow and millions of little water crystals were slowly falling onto the white frozen ground. She liked snow, she really liked it.

"And now go. After all, you don't have all day, otherwise my most noble self-sacrifice might be in vain. However, I doubt that I will actually die, because I am not exactly the weakest ANBU Konoha has to offer."

Konosuke sighed in resignation and accepted defeat. In the end, Asami was right, something had to be done. The rest of the squad was left alone by the girl who rapidly moved away .

After a short pause, Captain Konosuke simply ordered, "Let's go."

Continuing their way, Konosuke reflected on their rocky relationship, which wasn't exactly the best from the beginning, not to say abysmal and was characterized by a variety of conflicts.

Asami didn't like his command-style and vice versa, it was almost as if they were polar opposites. Aside from blatantly ignoring the majority of his orders and disagreeing with him on almost every point. Asami regarded him not only as inept, but also as a sub-par choice for their Captain, in general. In her opinion, he was one of 'those typically narrow-minded master strategists; and that 'he relied, like all Nara, far too much on plans which required perfect clockwork precision'.

Asami repeatedly criticized him for being too pedantic and cautious. Saying that he lacked the necessary audacity and initiative when it came to attacking. That he wasn't capable of seizing golden opportunities when they were presented to him on a silver platter because he was too focused on avoiding any losses at all costs:

That it was foolish to believe that battles were won without casualties and sacrifices being made, the price of victory was paid in blood alone and nothing else. That the one who defended everything, defended nothing and would lose accordingly everything.

Her accusations stung like hot needles, but he had decided long ago to put up with the girl and her antics. Because in the end, Asami was good, not to say amazingly good and it was always very convenient to have her on your side even when she was only thirteen, albeit he had at times a suspicion that she was in truth significantly older than was shown on paper.

No matter what, Asami was a force to be reckoned with and her tactical advice was in most cases relatively sound.

In summary, her methodology was to strike extremely fast, exceedingly hard and to never do anything by half. Most of the time, Asami preferred to go in with full force and simply kill everything and everyone living.

Therefore, it was sometimes infuriating to work with Asami because of her rather trigger happy nature. Her policy was throw kunai first, ask questions later, not forgetting her absolute disregard for the concept of obedience. Especially, if she, for example, attacked yet another time despite having explicit orders to standby, only because the conditions were favourable, and ruined once again all of his careful planning and meticulously crafted stratagems.

What use did contriving the best strategy have if a certain girl visibly enjoyed to sabotage them in every way possible?

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Asami sighed. In the end, nothing ever changed, if you wanted a job to be done properly, then you had to do it yourself, because everyone else was useless.

Everything would be easier, if Masaaki and Yusuke hadn't got themselves killed, but no.

In vain, she had advised Konosuke to send her to intercept them, but he didn't share her enthusiasm and rejected her offer for whatever stupid reason he had. Because she would have slaughtered them without any major difficulties, provided she hadn't encountered the Mizukage herself, which was, however, rather unlikely. Instead, Konosuke sent the two who were worth nothing more than mere cannon fodder. You see, it was simply horrible to be ignored and sometimes your own superiors were your worst enemy.

Driven by her inner rage, Asami took a firm grip on her sword.

Nothing was ever easy with Konosuke and his annoying convoluted strategies. Didn't he see that he was trapping himself by always aiming for the best possible solution, for the perfect solution? His judgement was clouded by eternally being attached to the original plan and exhibited an overall lack of flexibility. He was one of these types according to keikaku types and Asami loathed them all.

If Konosuke hadn't tried out one of his highly specialized battle plans, then they wouldn't be in this precarious situation. His plans might be brilliant at first glance, but they were inherently flawed. They were too reliant on coincidence and luck, and not forgetting the stupidity of your opponent,

No, it was a simple standard assassination mission and they had only to kill a high priority target. Unfortunately, said person had quite the respectable guard force consisting of Kiri-nin.

She advocated a direct assault through the front door to compensate for their numerical inferiority, using the element of surprise. Just get in, kill everyone, get out. Because who would expect a frontal attack executed by ANBU in broad daylight? Exactly, nobody. The Kiri-nin wouldn't even know what hit them before it was over.

On the other hand, Konosuke proposed dispatching a small infiltration party and trying to bypass the sentinels while the rest of the squad together with her was kept in the reserve until their support was needed.

His proposal was certainly the more shinobi-like and elegant solution, and as a consequence she was outvoted right before the attack was commenced, which was a further reason that she would rule with an iron fist over her squad and crush any delusions of democratic participation should she ever become Captain.

Jokes aside, his plan instantly fell apart as though it was a card house. The infiltration team was detected quickly, which was per se not so much of a problem in itself. But then everything went south with the arrival of two entire platoons of Kiri ANBU and that was slightly unexpected to say the least. From one moment to the next, they were outnumbered, outmanned and outgunned. And it wasn't funny to have to relief Konosuke and his trapped team afterwards.

Asami passed the nearby trees and closed up with their pursuers. She arrived at a small clearing populated by a single mighty oak enveloped in snow and ice. They had crossed the plain a few minutes ago. She scanned the area and awaited the arrival of the Kiri-nin while the snowfall around was growing stronger in intensity with every second passing. It was only a question of time before the storm turned into a full-on blizzard.

Soon after, fifteen Kiri ANBU entered the scene and stopped in their tracks. Fifteen unlucky men who had the misfortune to meet her. They were probably the vanguard,

Concealed by her white mask, her eyes glimmered in a weakly vivid red and Asami aimed her left Mangekyo on their leader. Flanked by two guards, the man stepped forward. He mocked her, "Is Konoha really so desperate to send a little girl to stop us…"

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A pulsating white blade was struck through Captain Yakumo. The tip exited his chest where his heart was supposed to be and behind him stood the girl clothed in white. She whispered sweetly into his ear and didn't attempt to hide her girlish giggling, "Little girl? That might be true, but you are grossly overestimating your own abilities and are immensely underestimating mine, my friend."

The sword sliced through the remainder of Yakumo's body like a hot knife through butter and the girl bisected Nobuyori and Tatsukichi with a swift swing spinning sidewards. Their flesh offered no resistance to the heated plasma and they were cut in half. Yakumo, Nobuyori and Tatsucki were dead and their bodies fell down onto the cold snow.

"One, two, three. So, who is next in line?" The girl smiled beneath her mask. The Kiri ANBU didn't hesitate. They knew what had to be done and they wouldn't back down easily from here on. They would kill this bitch, even if it cost them their lives.

"Wuuuaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh", their war cry filled the icy plains and the ANBU charged with all of their vigour and rage.

"Hehehehe", she giggled, amused by their foolishness and disappeared from sight in the blink of an eye.

An untraceable blur of nebulous afterimages demanded one victim after another amid the ongoing snowstorm. You couldn't see her, you couldn't hear her, but that didn't seem to apply to the girl. She knew exactly where they were and kept picking them off, taking them out one by one.

Four, a horizontal slash. Five, decapitated. Six, pierced through the chest.

The girl crossed the battlefield like a ghost. She was everywhere and nowhere. Her position always changed and what gave away her position was only her vibrating white sword.

Seven, he saw it never coming and was struck from behind. Eight, he lost both of his legs in an attempt to run. Nine, confronted her boldly, but his sword was simply melted through by her plasma blade.

The Kiri ANBU were decimated. They realised too late that they didn't stand a realistic chance from the very beginning against the personification of Death himself. Their unit disintegrated and their retreat turned quickly into a full scale rout, but it was useless. There was no escape, no mercy.

Ten, a pair of Raiton loaded kunai nailed his lifeless corpse to the nearby oak.

Eleven and twelve, both answered with a pincer movement. A purple barrier deflected their attack, however, and their swords simply snapped apart. The barrier wasn't scratched at all. Surprised, the duo was electrocuted by a sudden flurry of wild lightning.

Thirteen and fourteen, they had reached the dubiously secure treeline to seemingly escape their inevitable fate, but this was of course only an illusion of hope. The girl targeted them with her eyes and a gigantic bluish-white detonation engulfed their position. The blast-force of the nightmarish fireball ripped nearby trees apart and incinerated everything within the epicentre. They were both burned alive by the flames and subsequently reduced to nothingness.

Hidden behind her white porcelain mask, the girl slowly approached a trembling Hisahsi.

He was alone now, so utterly alone. He was the last one surviving this carnage which barely lasted two minutes. Her previously white fur coat was now like the snow coloured red by the blood and gone was any pretence of childish innocence.

"Fifteen", the girl focused her eyes on him through her dangerous slits and Hisahsi could have sworn that her eyes were glowing in a dark luminous red he had never seen before in his life. These eyes weren't normal, they weren't human. What was she? Was the girl really human?

"What is your name?" the demon in white asked nicely after a short pause. But he didn't need her damned fake politeness.

"You fucking bitch, I don't have to answer you." Hisahsi grabbed his Tanto and rushed forward mustering all of his force. He clashed against her shield, but the purple barrier didn't budge a single millimetre. The girl giggled and nonchalantly broke his stance by aiming with a simple kick for his feet. He toppled over, or rather should have. Before he reached the snowy ground, Hisahsi took a punch into his abdomen.

The force behind her incredibly fast punch was immense considering her frail stature and didn't exactly correlate with his expectations. The girl hit hard and Hisahsi was brutally thrown backwards.

The demon in white shook her head in a disappointed manner. "Tsk tsk tsk, the shinobi these days. Always so stubborn and never know when to give up. You try to be nice and what do they do? They immediately spit in your face."

"You are right, Fifteen. You don't have to answer me, but that won't be necessary for what I intend to do." The girl leisurely lifted his mask off with the tip of her blade.

"I have a little work for you", she commanded in a calm and lyrical tone.

Hisahsi was visibly enraged. "Who do you think you are… Aarghhhhhhhhhhh!"

The girl drilled her sword directly through his right hand, pinning it into the ground. "You shouldn't misunderstand your position, Fifteen. I am not particularly renowned for my infinite patience and your continuous refusal to cooperate are starting to annoy me. Do you understand your place now?"

"Aarghhhhhhhh!"

"I said, do you understand now?" Immense pain shot through his nervous system. The girl let a bit of her Chakra flow through her sword and began to twist it in his wound. The plasma around the tip was practically burning his hand.

"Aarghhhhhhhhh, yeeeesssss", Hisahsi ground his teeth and endured the pain.

"Excellent. Was that so difficult? Why couldn't you have been so cooperative from the very beginning? Why do I always need to employ the forceful kind of persuasion methods? Tsk tsk tsk, men and their stubbornness." The girl smiled happily.

"Anyway, your very important task is to inform the rest of your lovely company that they should get the fuck out of my way unless they want to have a friendly encounter with me. And we don't want that to happen, do we?"

"And now run, run before I change my mind", the girl's soft angelic tone turned into cold ice.

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Asami watched the retreating figure of her most recent acquaintance. He wasn't the worst runner she had ever seen over the years. Actually, the boy was quite fast. But that shouldn't be particularly surprising after the grand show she had put on for him. Her little carrier pigeon should slow them down a bit, or at least let the Kiri-nin reconsider their choice to pursue them.

And if classical intimidation didn't work and they ignored her friendly warnings, then she had to persuade them as usual with her sword.

Asami approached the oak and retrieved her pair of kunai. After all, these two kunai were special and specifically designed and produced for her. Therefore, they shouldn't be wasted needlessly without a second thought. Especially, when they were pretty expensive like them. Afterwards, the girl sat down on one of the firm branches the tree had to offer and waited, and waited, and waited.

Asami was wondering whether her previous actions would ignite their desire for revenge, or whether they would listen to reason and avoid her. Both options were possible.

Asami watched the battlefield and smiled happily while admiring her handiwork, even when it mainly consisted of dead bodies, severed limbs and a bit of blood and gore in between. But hey, who cares?

In fact, Asami was quite proud of what she had achieved since her fateful fight against Itachi, thanks to which she had received a few very, very few advantageous gifts and new abilities.

Getting her hands on an updated version of the Sharingan, was unexpected to say the least. Furthermore, the interesting special abilities of her eyes augmented her style perfectly as if they were specifically crafted for her.

Not only had they profited her method of teleportation strongly using the visual prowess of her new Sharingan, but also her technique was now far smoother and more fluid than its crude predecessor. Thanks to her new eyes, she was now able to manipulate Chakra like never before. She could mould, form extinguish her Chakra as she desired. Her control was absolute and hindered her anymore.

Apparently, they were called Mangekyo Sharingan, which was frankly a piece of information that had been hard to come by. She had to secretly dig around for quite some time because the village archives, the official shinobi archives as well as the unofficial ANBU archives, weren't all too forthcoming concerning the Uchiha clan and the names of their Dojutsu techniques.

Someone could almost think that everything in regard to the Sharingan had been systematically purged or classified for a reason, which Asami certainly did. Fortunately, she had access to most of the information as being a part of ANBU, but all of these measures went exceedingly beyond what could be considered normal security and rational secrecy. There was something fishy about the situation and it had to do with the Uchiha clan.

And not forgetting, she received gratis on top the Susanoo, a lovely creation. An easily malleable avatar made from Chakra which offered almost unlimited potential for modifications and experimentation, and Asami had already a few ideas. It was unfortunate, however, that she could use her Susanoo so rarely, which was severely disappointing.

Anyway, the Sharingan was full of surprises and a truly potent weapon. Sometimes she almost felt like she was cheating, but only almost. Because it wasn't her problem that she had those advantages and others not. They were hers and hers alone.

Asami was curious, however, about whether her Sharingan still had to offer more of those advantages? She had surely to do significant research on that subject. Who knows, perhaps she would even stumble over a hidden connection between the Sharingan and Rinnegan?

In retrospect, she was quite grateful to Itachi for the gifts he had given her. Unfortunately, she had issued a death threat to him, which could be considered a bit of an issue. Because Asami was neither the type to forget nor forgive easily without any form of just retaliation. And Itachi would pay his price too, that was sure.

Nevertheless, Asami felt slightly indebted to the Uchiha. Sure she would kill him some day and this project might require a decade or two. But Asami was a patient person in that regard and she could wait for her revenge. And who said that you couldn't eventually forgive your enemies?

In the end, they could perhaps even put their little grudge aside and reconcile after their little initial disagreement. Because a small skirmish, a few deaths here and there and their trying to kill each other wasn't particularly extraordinary among good friends, was it?And not forgetting, nothing lasts eternally. People and situations change.

Asami smiled, while her Chakra sensed how the retreating hostile Kiri-nin had suddenly halted to regroup. They not only stopped, but also retreated.

So, her pigeon had apparently reached his target and successfully delivered her message. And it seems that they had decided to abandon their suicidal pursuit, which was honestly for the best since they would have instead added a few more corpses to her body count.

Asami stood from her relatively uncomfortable sitting position because being frozen to death wasn't a particularly appealing concept to her. Despite wearing the warmest and thickest clothes she had, it was simply too cold here for her liking. Yes, it was winter and it was damn cold. And her current location didn't provide sufficient cover against the assaulting elements.

Asami rubbed her gloves and marched straight off to the assembly point where the they and the other ANBU squads were supposed to regroup after completing their assigned missions. As far as she could remember, their assembly point was supposed to be a small village near the border.

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	22. Arc III Chapter V

**III**

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 **Arc III Chapter V**

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Unsurprisingly, Asami reached the assembly point last. It was an abandoned village somewhere near the border that was chosen for its favourable strategic location. Her squad had successfully escaped, which wasn't particularly unexpected, considering that she performed the rear-guard.

Passing a few ANBU guards patrolling the perimeter, Asami entered the empty village and their provisional camp.

The girl had only a few short glimpses of the three other ANBU squads, but she noticed nevertheless that their ranks were strongly depleted compared to when they moved out. At first glance, it was difficult to say how many were missing, but it was apparent that quite a few ANBU were.

Asami wondered if they had also encountered more resistance than initially expected, which was probably the case. Because the missions they were carrying out were in fact inherently dangerous and extremely risky, not to say failure had to be expected. All four operations struck deeply into enemy territory directly under the control of Kirigakure and without any immediate support available whatsoever. In Asami's opinion, it was a miracle that they hadn't lost more men or even an entire squad. Nevertheless, she was surprised by the severity of their losses.

Walking through the village, Asami spotted a single female Iryo-nin who was desperately trying to save the ANBU lying below her.

The green shimmering colour of her medical Ninjutsu enlightened the hastily constructed medical tent and the woman healed the deep cut across his abdomen with all her force, but it was ultimately futile. The grievous wounds didn't close and bitter tears ran down her face. She knew that the man was about to meet his fate and nothing could save him now. Asami noticed the two complementing bracelets around their both arms and decided that she had seen enough.

The girl continued to walk, accompanied by the beautiful crystallized snow around her. Snow was so wonderfully pure, wasn't it? Asami smiled and ignored the pain-filled cries of the woman until they slowly silenced the further she walked away.

She scanned the area for other heavily wounded ANBU, but she was unable to spot any. Most ANBU had simply a few light cuts, scratches, and a few bloodstains here and there. Their conditions were nothing too urgent, which was a good thing.

A dead body was cheap and didn't cause any further problems. A corpse didn't need anything except for a proper burial. A wounded shinobi was, however, a burden, a very troublesome burden. Because the dead could be replaced swiftly and another one could take their place while the wounded required constant care, medicine, additional manpower and were essentially dead weight.

The truth was that a dead shinobi was in many cases better than a barely living one, and this one was such a case in Asami's opinion. They had to leave this area as fast as possible and any casualties would just bog them down longer than necessary.

Eventually, Asami detected the rest of her squad and Konosuke. Like the majority of the remaining ANBU, their faces were tired and their fatigue was clearly visible. Asami ignored them for now and approached Captain Konosuke who was deeply in a heated discussion with the three other ANBU Captains. Apparently, they were discussing something important.

Asami entered the scene calmly and that earned her quite a few disbelieving stares by everyone present. All surrounding ANBU gaped at her as if she had simply resurrected from the dead.

"What?" The girl was bewildered by their stares.

"Ehm, you have returned." Konosuke freed himself from his sudden stupor while the other ANBU Captains observed the conversation with great interest.

"Yes, and?" His answer confused her further. Yes, she had returned. But why should that be relevant?

"Well, when you left, I assumed that you would certainly die. But apparently, you are still pretty much alive, which is … surprising." A relieved Konosuke smiled uneasily and scratched his head.

"Yes, that is relatively obvious, isn't it? However, I am honestly disappointed that you have so little faith in my abilities, Konosuke. Do you really think a few harmless Kiri ANBU could ever harm the great me? Tsk tsk tsk. Shouldn't you already know that I am pretty much unkillable by normal mortal means?" Asami puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms indignantly.

Konosuke laughed at her joke." It might be true that I have never seen you take a single hit, but to call yourself unkillable is ludicrous. Don't you think you are overestimating yourself a bit, Asami?"

"Perhaps, or you are simply grossly underestimating me, Konosuke." Asami smirked knowingly.

"True, true. Anyway, how did you even make it back?" Konosuke's face turned serious and he eyed her previously completely white fur coat that had gained a mildly conspicuous crimson touch during her little adventure.

"I have encountered a small part of their main force, their vanguard presumably, and eradicated them. Fourteen Kiri ANBU were eliminated and one was rendered combat ineffective." Asami smiled proudly while her statement made all the surrounding ANBU blink. Fifteen Kiri ANBU?

"What, fifteen? You are kidding me, right? Two or three perhaps would be believable. But fifteen fucking ANBU? No way. Otherwise, Konoha would have informed us during the mission debriefing that we're escorted by a little girl who is strong enough to casually demolish a small Kiri army entirely on her own." Akahito, the Captain of the second squad, effectively gaped at her.

"So, you don't believe me, eh?"

"You, a freshly admitted ANBU recruit? I don't believe you. In a few years perhaps you could, but it's out of the question now. What do you think, Ino?" Akahito remained sceptical and turned to the Captain of the fourth squad for support.

"Based on what I heard from my ANBU friends, she isn't talent-less. So, who knows." Ino regarded Asami critically.

"And what is your opinion Koichi, Konosuke?" Akahito continued.

Koichi remained silent, but his eyes were focused on the enigmatic girl in front of him. He was one of the rare veterans the ANBU had and his reliable instincts had already saved him countless times. And right at this moment, his instincts told him without a doubt that the girl was dangerous. Not simply the common variety of dangerous, but exceedingly dangerous, an existence that no sane person would or should oppose openly. And Konosuke scratched his head and didn't answer at all.

"You too, Konosuke? Why don't you give me the benefit of the doubt?" Asami was slightly saddened by his lack of support.

"Ehmmm well, you are quite skillful and powerful for your age, but …"

Asami interrupted him and surrendered, "Right, right, I understand."

It was only logical that they doubted her abilities when nobody within ANBU had even the faintest idea of how powerful she truly was. Especially, when her standard default policy was to avoid the use of her more destructive techniques in the presence of her teammates for reasons of secrecy. And Asami didn't like giving information freely and without any sort of compensation it simply wasn't necessary. And not forgetting, she wasn't particularly eager for the world to find out about her Mangekyo Sharingan. Too bothersome, too much to adequately explain, and now was not the right moment.

And in the rare cases she had to use her skills … Let's say, there hadn't been a single soul yet who had successfully survived an encounter with her Mangekyo. Eyewitnesses were therefore an uncommon occurrence.

Asami gave up and declared mockingly, "I, Minami Asami, swear to the father of all shinobi, His Holiness the Sage of Six Paths and all his descendants, which didn't fight off a massive horde of fifteen angry shinobi, but only an understrength three man party which decided to suddenly retreat in the middle of the fight to regroup."

Akahito smiled," See, was that so difficult?"

"No, it wasn't." Asami rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, could it be only my wild imagination, or have our numbers significantly dwindled, or what? Have they all gone on a more permanent type of vacation?" Asami looked around, but most of the people avoided her gaze and had their eyes fixed on the ground.

"So you have also noticed it?" Konosuke reacted, concerned.

Asami furrowed an eyebrow. "Noticed, you say, Konosuke? Don't you see how glaringly obvious it is? I would say that barely half of us have returned…"

"Not even the half, or at least if they did it was not without grievous injuries", Koichi interrupted her.

"What do you mean?" Asami focused her eyes on Koichi.

"I mean what I say, not even half have returned. At the moment, we have five ANBU who are confirmed to have been killed in action. Further six went missing. Seven were heavily wounded and only four lightly. In the end, in toto only ten of originally thirty-two ANBU remain who are still in any condition to fight." Koichi informed her of their current disastrous situation, which was far more critical than she had initially expected.

They were effectively reduced to more or less thirty-three percent of their original strength and the rest were either incapacitated or irrecoverably lost.

"Six."

"Huh?" the ANBU Captains reacted, confused and furrowed their eyebrows.

"One has died from his injuries a few minutes ago. As a consequence, you can reduce the number of wounded by one", Asami corrected Koichi and stoic silence greeted her.

"What happened?" Asami asked and demanded an explanation for this utter disaster.

Ino presented her version of the events, "I have no idea how exactly, but I suspect that our missions were compromised from the beginning and the enemy was informed of our movements."

"For example, my squad was lured into an ambush and were nearly wiped out as a result. The same happened to Akahito, and something similar to Koichi. And yours was nearly trapped by the arrival of a whole Kiri ANBU platoon popping out of nowhere with the best timing imaginable."

Akahito continued," Yes, it was almost as if the Kiri ANBU were simply waiting for us to appear …"

One of the ANBU guards appeared and kneeled on the ground. The man addressed Koichi, "Captain."

"What is the matter, Norinaga?"

The kneeling ANBU raised his head. "The enemy has sent a messenger to 'negotiate' our surrender."

"Surrender?" Konosuke blinked, disbelievingly.

Norinaga replied quickly, "Yes, apparently, a force of one hundred Kiri ANBU has surrounded our position and they demand our capitulation to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Otherwise, they will be forced to annihilate us."

One hundred Kiri ANBU, that was an extraordinary number, a number of shinobi which was basically unheard of since the last Shinobi War. Koichi maintained outward calmness, but Konosuke, Ino and Akahito suddenly grew very silent after they had realised the significance of what the guard said. Several seconds went by and seconds turned into minutes. An increasing feeling of hopelessness and despair filled the cold winter air and everyone's morale was visibly deteriorated.

"There are no desperate situations, Konosuke, Koichi, Akahito, Ino, there are only desperate people. No matter how inevitable defeat is and unsurpassable your opponent might seem, you should never forget that a battle is never truly lost until you regard it as such", Asami intervened and surprised them all with her little speech.

"Norinaga, right?" The ANBU nodded and looked at Asami.

"Tell our little pseudo-diplomat that he should fuck off quickly or I will personally deliver his head back to their lines. If they want our capitulation, then they have to come and take it by force. And I can promise them that they will pay for every inch of ground with their blood." Asami smiled sweetly.

Norinaga merely nodded and disappeared while the girl turned around. "If we are all about to die, then we can at least go down with style. Don't you also think so?"

Her question was directed at her shocked audience and Akahito began to laugh loudly. "Hahahahahahahaha, finally we see eye to eye."

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The sun set and was replaced by the night and the pale white light of the moon. Every available ANBU member which wasn't occupied with a trifling chore were assembled to form their little ad hoc council of war. As a consequence, they were assembled around a thick wooden table with a map spread upon it to discuss their current situation like honourable gentlemen, calmly and in a civilised manner.

"You fucking bitch, are you crazy, or what?" A mature and dignified Akahito said. " Do you even comprehend what you are suggesting we should do? Did you actually propose we should simply abandon our wounded comrades? Do you want everyone here to die?" He shot Asami a furious glare filled with his unrelenting rage, and now gone was every ounce of kindness from his eyes.

Asami stood her ground and reciprocated with her own narrowed eyes. And if stares could kill, then Akahito would have been evaporated instantly. "What I propose might sound despicable at first glance, but as a matter of fact, it is the only sensible decision we can make now. And I am fully aware of the implications and how Konohagakure will look upon it, Akahito. Therefore, being as I am in full possession of all my wits, don't dare to lecture me. And I would recommend you better mind your tongue the next time you open your mouth."

"Weren't you the one who said that we wouldn't surrender? Weren't you the one who said that they would pay for every inch of ground they won with their blood? Weren't you the one who said that we should at least go down with style? Or was your pretty little speech only hot air and nothing more?" Akahito was furious, understandably.

Asami ground her teeth but didn't budge." Yes, from a certain perspective, yes, my speech was indeed only hot air. My words were primarily intended to lift spirits a bit, to create a shining light in the dark, but those words were never meant to be taken seriously. Moreover, we couldn't allow ourselves to appear weak before the eyes of the enemy. We had to keep up a convincing façade and pretend to be stronger than we actually are. Or in summary, I bluffed."

"However, I never intended to insinuate that we should actually make any sort of senseless last stand in this place like you seem to want to do, Akahito."

"My plan was at no point of time to soak the soil on which we are standing with our blood and transform this village into our eternal grave with a fitting epitaph for our tombstones saying, 'Stranger, tell Konohagakure. That we lie here obedient to their laws.'"

"Every barely sentient being in this room should understand that we are basically all dead if we stay here, that we live on borrowed time. We are surrounded and I can assure you that no outside relief force will come to our rescue. We have only ten men still capable of putting up any sort of resistance if necessary, while the rest can be considered practically combat ineffective."

"And to make things worse, we are now roughly outnumbered something like 40:1 based on our latest reports, and that is provided no further reinforcements have arrived yet. They have mobilised two full companies over the last ten hours. Albeit their quality might be largely dubious, they will still crush us all easily with their numbers alone. If they decide to mop us up, then it won't be an honourable battle. No, Akahito, it will be a massacre."

"Therefore, I repeat myself, we have to break out of this encirclement as fast as possible, or at least die trying", Asami declared without even a tiny spark of doubt. It was necessary, and it had to be done.

Everyone fell silent until Koichi eventually spoke. The veteran eyed Asami questioningly, "It is clear to you that in order to succeed with a breakout, we have to leave behind the wounded?"

Asami gave an affirmative answer with a sense of finality," Like I said it before, I am fully aware of the fact that we have to leave them behind, but so be it. If we want to have even a marginal chance of success, then we have to do what is necessary. These are desperate times, my friends, and desperate times require desperate measures."

"Don't call me your friend, you heartless monster. I will never betray my comrades no matter what, no matter when, and no matter where. Because those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash and every Konoha shinobi should know that." Akahito hit the table with his fists.

Asami sighed in disappointment. "Akahito, I have to admit that there are specific situations which demand a no step back policy, but this is definitely not such a situation. I can assure you that it doesn't matter much whether we fight to the last kunai or not. Because our noble sacrifice, or rather your sacrifice has no tactical, no operational, no strategic value aside from serving your own ideology and satisfies your desire for worthless heroism. In conclusion, dying here is absolutely senseless."

"Instead, you should look at the situation from my perspective, Akahito. It's a simple calculation, not a difficult one. If we fight, then everyone dies without exception. If we leave them behind, then fourteen of us could potentially survive this debacle. And who are you to deny them this right, Akahito? Don't the lives of six people and not more seem like a small price to pay in exchange for the lives of everyone else? We don't have to kill them, we just have to abandon them. Either way, some people will die, that is certain. The only question is exactly how many must die? Six wounded ANBU, or twenty?"

The room fell silent for an indefinite amount of time and nobody present dared to disturb the uncomfortable silence.

"How can you be so cold, Asami? Do their lives mean nothing to you?" Konosuke pitied her, but she didn't need his pity.

Asami glared at the Nara in anger and shut him up immediately. "Cold you say, Konosuke? You have the impudence to call me cold, Konosuke, because I have the courage to tell you the truth, a truth that nobody here wants apparently to hear the truth. Because I try to save all of your sorry asses on my own. Because I don't sugar-coat things for you. Life is not a fairy tale where everything will work out perfectly in the end. No, I am a realist and nothing will be fine in the end. Instead, we will all die. I have told you this once, Konosuke, that the one who defends everything will lose everything because you don't have the resolution to sacrifice and to do what is necessary, and this is such a case. And contrary to you, I am ready to make the decision which is neither pleasant nor easy, but it is the right one. Even if you all and the entire village consider me trash afterwards."

Asami was pretty sure that she had got her point across and waited for a few seconds to allow her words to sink in. The girl continued and gained again the attention of the completely silent shinobi." So, everyone who supports my idea should now raise their hand."

Her eyes swept over the ANBU, but as expected she couldn't spot even a single hand among the present ANBU. The majority of them remained quiet and decided to stare at the ground, while a minority glared at her in open contempt.

A minority despised her and a majority probably shared her thoughts, but they didn't have the courage to speak their minds openly. After all, they were Konoha shinobi and there was no greater sin than to abandon your comrades regardless of the circumstances.

These fools, these damn inflexible idiots and their fucking Will of Fire. Didn't they see how they were running willingly into their own demise.

Asami was disappointed and left the room. She had expected too much from these dogmatic morons. She had tried to solve this matter the nice way instead of relying on the classical method, which was in retrospect quite a stupid idea. In the end, she hadn't achieved anything meaningful besides ruining her reputation.

When nobody was able to do what was ultimately necessary to survive, then she had to be the one to do it. Asami opened the door and marched alone into the dark cold night.

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Asami strolled around and arrived at the outer fringes of the village which was guarded dutifully by an ANBU. Norinaga was perfect, he was just the alibi she needed. Suddenly, the ANBU addressed her, "Captain, what are you doing here?"

Asami looked at the shadowy figure before him, cloaked by the deep night, "Captain? When did I gain such a prominent position without being informed, Norinaga?"

Norinaga laughed silently, "When you put on your little performance this morning, you have earned yourself the title more than enough in my eyes."

Asami furrowed a doubtful eyebrow." Aren't you exaggerating a bit, Norinaga? I just told Kiri to fuck off. Otherwise, I didn't do anything spectacular."

The ANBU nodded." That is true, but I could see how your words gave us back a bit of our courage, and that is worth quite a bit."

"Sure, sure." Asami accepted his explanation and surveyed the seemingly lifeless forest." And how are our Kiri friends?"

"I don't know. At the moment, they are lying low and we haven't practically seen any signs of them except for a few scouts and the messenger they had sent. Otherwise, nothing else has happened", Norinaga replied.

"Really?"

"Yes, and that is what I don't understand, Captain."

"What do you mean? What's so difficult to understand?" Asami was truly curious.

She sensed the Chakra signatures of her six targets and pinpointed the vague location of the improvised field hospital on her mental map. She had the rough coordinates, and now she had just to get a glimpse of the right building.

"Well, I don't understand why they haven't attacked yet considering their overwhelming numerical superiority. We are weak and we shouldn't stand a chance against. They could have destroyed us easily twenty times over by now. But instead, they hesitate and are desperately calling for reinforcements. It is, … It is almost as if they are scared of us", Norinaga told her, pensively.

"Scared of us?" Asami was visibly amused.

"Yes, as if they don't dare to attack us without being backed by a giant army, which is strange. Because I have no idea who or what could instill so much fear in them", Norinaga confessed.

"Who knows, there could be a lot of possible reasons behind their actions." Asami smiled innocently. Surely, it wasn't her who scared them. No, no, no, that couldn't be. She turned around and left the ANBU, but not immediately. After all, she needed Norinaga as an eyewitness. She was with him and didn't do anything.

"Good night, Norinaga." Asami walked away and focused her Mangekyo on the coordinates of her targets for a fraction of a second. It was an old wooden house and it didn't look particularly stable, but the girl didn't take a risk. Asami concentrated as much Chakra as necessary and she obviously changed the colour of her flames. Because there weren't many shinobi in Konoha which normally used white flames like her, but there were many shinobi that could use Katon.

"Good night, Ca…" Both ANBU were thrown to the ground by a giant explosion in the middle of the village, a giant expanding red fireball brightened the night sky for a short moment. The enormous exothermic reaction shredded the old nearby buildings into little splinters and incinerated everything nearby.

Norinaga got up again and knocked off the snow from his clothes." What the fuck was that?"

Asami smiled secretly and followed him. "I have no idea."

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	23. Arc III Chapter VI

**III**

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 **Arc III Chapter VI**

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If you were able to ignore a few dangerous and poisonous creatures lurking among the ancient trees, then the Forest of Death was a rather calm and peaceful place despite the ominous name. Beneath the trees, it wasn't particularly hot, and not excessively cold. It was not overly bright, and not too dark.

And a certain girl enjoyed it by making herself comfortable right before the tower entrance. She was waiting for any competitors who were stupid enough to challenge her, Asami rested in a chair protected by a giant umbrella. The parasol was probably unnecessary as the trees protected her fair skin from the aggressive sunlight, but it was better to be safe than sorry later.

Asami grumbled angrily," Damned sunburns, and damned sun."

Her relatively low resistance to sunlight wasn't a massive problem, but it had been indeed a constant annoyance ever since her early childhood. Regardless of what she did, if her skin was exposed slightly to sun, then she inevitably was rewarded with a faint sunburn, which was infuriating to say the least. And which was the main reason why Asami generally preferred clothes with long and wide sleeves and high collars aside from purely stylistic reasons.

She even joked once with her beloved Oka-san that she was probably capable of getting a moon burn thanks to her pale skin. Ah, sweet memories of happier times, how she missed those days, how she missed her.

Asami swirled her drink in her glass before taking a sip. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to bring ice cubes. Asami placed her glass back on the soft grass and watched her two totally exhausted teammates. Hisaaki and Katsusane were both lying sprawled on the ground and were panting heavily as if she had actually tried to kill them with her little march, which was of course not the case. Asami smiled diabolically. Running such a distance was a little "demanding', where your average Chunin was concerned.

"Huh huh huh huh, what did you, huh huh huh huh, say again yesterday? I am Asami and I am a weak and helpless girl. I can only throw a few kunai. I am only capable of a small amount of Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and a very, very small amount of Katon, but otherwise I am rather useless. Huh-huh-huh, but you didn't regard it was necessary to inform us that you are faster than the fucking Yellow Flash himself ever was." Hisaaki was out of breath and imitated Asami in a mocking tone. His nearly collapsing lungs made him feel as if he was dying.

Sitting in her chair, Asami crossed her legs and smiled kindly. "I see that you haven't lost your humour, Hisaaki. Furthermore, I am truly amused by being compared with the legendary Yellow Flash. Are you trying to flatter me, Hisaaki?"

"Shut up! You are not funny at all, you … you … you merciless slave driver! Never in my entire life have I had to run so fast. Meanwhile, you were just leisurely strolling around. How is that possible?" Hisaaki asked the girl, because he strongly doubted that even his sensei Hatsu stood a chance going up against Asami even if she was serious. The girl was ridiculously fast and was practically dancing through the trees without any visible effort.

Hisaaki suspected that there was far more to the girl than met his eye and he finally understood why exactly the Hokage himself had personally vouched for her capabilities. He might not be a genius, but Asami was sure as hell not a normal Genin. The way she acted and the way she spoke, so much of this about her simply didn't add up. Who the hell was she? Who was Asami truly?

Asami tilted her head." How I? Let's just say that it is a little secret of mine. But you have a correct hunch, Hisaaki, more or less."

"Yes, I use teleportation to boost my speed and you could indeed describe my use of teleportation as a partial attempt to imitate the Fourth, which is nevertheless incorrect. Because I don't really emulate the Yellow Flash from a technical standpoint, albeit I am certainly trying to eventually surpass his famous 'Flying Thunder God' which I have studied extensively .

Our techniques may look similar from an outside perspective, but they are different on a fundamental level. While the Fourth's Flying Thunder God was primarily derived from the art of summoning and characterised by the required use of a technique formula which is typical of Fuinjutsu, my teleportation is rather a derivative product of the widely-known Body Replacement Jutsu."

"Therefore, mine and his Jutsu are fundamentally different."

"His Jutsu is more Chakra efficient for short-range and mid-range, while mine is more mobile and doesn't require any preparations, but in exchange it relies strongly on line of sight.

In conclusion, neither my Jutsu nor the Flying Raijin can be called superior, and which one is better largely depends on the situation you find yourself in as well as the concrete application…" Asami didn't stop blathering about technical and theoretical details.

Eventually, Asami noticed Hisaaki's blank and empty expression midway through her theoretical discourse. Hisaaki was mentally agape and unable to process her dissertation. Teleportation… supplementing speed and movement… surpassing Flying Thunder God… extensively studied… derived from summoning… derivative product… created on my own.

Did Asami just casually mention that she had created a space-time teleportation Jutsu on her own and was earnestly measuring herself against Namikaze Minato, Konoha's Yellow Flash, the fourth Hokage? Yes, she had and with an air of confidence which was incomprehensible to Hisaaki. Seriously, who was Asami? Who was this girl?

Being on the receiving end of Asami's angry glare, Hisaaki attempted to change the subject," How long did we take to get here?"

Asami rolled her eyes." I don't know, but according to my internal clock, and primarily my stopwatch, it took us nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds. By the way, you have my respect, I honestly didn't expect the two of you to both break the ten-minute mark. Therefore, once again, congratulations." Asami offered them a happy smile and applauded.

Hisaaki scratched his head and laughed." Well, thank you."

"Aarghhh, I don't need your congratulations", Katsusane groaned and stood. After dusting off his clothes, the boy gaped at the surreal girl relaxing in her chair." What are you doing there?"

"What does it look like?" Asami sipped calmly her drink, decorated with its own miniature parasol and a lemon slice.

"We aren't on some sort of beach vacation here. These are the Chunin exams, can't you take these exams for a single moment ... seriously, Asami?" Katsusane was visibly angry. But why?

"But I take these things quite seriously, Katsusane, I swear. The problem is simply that there is a difference between you and me when it comes to seriousness between. For people such as yourself, these exams are a world-shaking event which may occur only once in your lifetime. However, on my part, these things are nothing more than an insignificant triviality." Asami looked at her empty glass and considered refilling it. The Uchiha didn't say that participating in these exams felt indeed like being on a vacation compared versus her regular ANBU work.

There was no bloodshed, no destruction, no morally questionable actions, no tragic deaths, no desperate tears, no pained cries for help which would never come. Everything was so calm and peaceful in this all too bright world full of light untainted by any unsightly shadows.

Asami had learned during her time within the ANBU, how much of this beautiful and perfect village scenery was maintained by people like her who immersed and soaked themselves in darkness. They were Konoha's true shield, sword and dagger.

After all, you didn't accidentally become a great power with one of the biggest standing militaries in existence by virtue of goodness and benevolence alone. There was no empire in history that wasn't founded on a mountain of corpses like an unassailable fortress, and Konoha's mountain was far higher than many people realised.

Katsusane accepted her answer grudgingly and continued to stare angrily at a certain nonchalant girl," Well, what is your plan to get an Earth Scroll, Captain."

"Our plan? Didn't you listen to my little speech? We don't need a plan, Katsusane. That is the whole point of waiting here. Every single team has to pass through us if they want to enter the tower to advance to the next round. As a consequence, we have absolutely nothing to do but to prey will show up soon considering that I have already motivated our opponents slightly", Asami explained as she refilled her beverage with the liquid which humanity ran on since the dawn of civilisation, alcohol.

In the meanwhile, three unknown individuals were swiftly converging on their position, but Asami had better things to do than worry about a trio of amateurs such as them. The Genin didn't merit her full attention.

"Then, couldn't you have at least warned us about your brilliant plan, Captain?", Katsusane complaint legitimately.

Asami laughed uneasily and confessed promptly," Ehmmm, well, that would have been quite difficult considering the fact that it was primarily a spontaneous idea."

"Aarghhh, you know that you and your irresponsible behaviour are driving me insane, Asami?" Katsusane sighed in resignation and buried all his hopes. Asami was just … incorrigible.

The girl cheered on her slightly depressed companion up with a big smile." Don't worry Katsusane …"

Asami stopped immediately because she sensed two very ominous Chakra signatures moving in their direction. Both of them meant big trouble judging by their ridiculously vast Chakra reserves, especially the suspected Jinchuriki. The boy had a somewhat similar aura which was difficult to ignore, and it was common knowledge that the fourth Kazekage had sealed the One-Tail inside one of his children.

Asami cursed her own overconfidence that had bit her in her ass once again, sort of. Why could fate never go easy on her? Instead, the two most bothersome opponents which she wanted to avoid if possible were directly coming for her. Couldn't these assholes have gone somewhere else? Asami had to admit, however, that she kind of deserved it by trying her luck and provoking them openly. You reaped what you sowed.

While the Sunagakure trio was more of an uncomfortable annoyance, this Kusagakure shinobi was definitely a powerful shinobi based on his Chakra readings. She could practically feel that the man was strong.

And it was uncertain whether or not she could defeat the fucker without using enough firepower to turn the entire forest into an apocalyptic wasteland, which she wanted to avoid for obvious reasons.

Asami acted immediately and had her obsolete summer equipment disappear within a scroll." Hisaaki, Katsusane, prepare yourself for combat. Because we will have some company soon, Suna, Kusa and whoever else."

Asami faced the forest and gripped a kunai using a reverse grip. Sadly, she missed her iconic sword and mask.

Her sudden change of behaviour unsettled Hisaaki as well as Katsusane. Gone was the joking and slightly playful Asami. She scanned the forest for any hostile movements. The snake-tongued bastard had ceased to advance. What was the asshole planning _?_

Asami assessed their tactical situation and warned her team mates," They are coming."

Their first guests made their appearance and they were a nameless Genin team from Amegakure. They consisted of two boys and one girl, but that didn't matter much as the trio was rather insignificant in the greater scheme of things. Nevertheless, they looked to be highly motivated and as if they actually believed that could defeat her and pass the test. A real shame that they had walked right into her trap.

Her other guests were, however, a more troublesome set of customers. The blonde girl with an over-dimensioned fan, a Futon user probably. The black pyjama guy with his violet face paint. And last but not least, the red haired emo kid with the giant gourd on his back.

The girl plunged her fan into the ground and smirked dangerously." Apparently, we weren't the only ones who had the idea to go after such easy prey, Kankuro."

The puppeteer grinned." Yes, it seems to be the case, Temari. But I doubt that these Ame-nin will represent any real challenge to us."

The Suna trio intimidated the three Ame Genin and made them step backwards, quite a few steps, actually. But otherwise, the Ame-nin didn't budge and kept their kunai ready.

Both sides engaged each other in an ongoing staring contest, which Asami didn't particularly care about as long as these insolent brats didn't dare to ignore her and her team, but especially her. They ignored her as if she didn't even exist, and that was of course not acceptable.

Asami glimpsed the visible Earth Scroll the Ame girl held. The piece of paper was placed around her wrist, which was not the most intelligent choice. The scroll waited only for a change of ownership, and a single moment of distraction was everything she needed to execute her operation.

Ignoring their visible uneasiness, the girl whispered to Hisaaki and Katsusane," When I give you a sign, run inside the tower."

Asami knew that the tower was officially a neutral area, and she would use the fact to her advantage. The duo registered what she said and exchanged questioning looks." Trust me, guys. Simply move your asses there and we will be safe."

Producing two kunai from her sleeves, the Uchiha placed them right in front of the two opposing teams and thus gained their attention. The girl strolled happily forward and politely waved at the hostile parties which tried to puncture her together with their schooled death glares, but Asami had experienced far worse. A suitable diversion was required now, something spectacular which would make them lower their guard.

Asami adopted the cutest girl pose available in her repertoire and her face was shining like a bright little sun. A soft lyrical flow of syllables escaped her wonderfully crimson lips," Ehmmm, excuse me, I don't think that it is nice to talk about other people while said people are standing right next to you. Haven't your parents taught you that, you dim-witted cretins and poor excuses of sapient human life? Don't fucking dare to ignore me, you assholes, when I am within hearing distance."

"What did you just say?" a visibly enraged red haired kid spoke up and furrowed a non-existent eyebrow. Everything and everyone fell silent, and only the playful wind could be heard amid a sea of incredulous stares. Especially, the two Genin accompanying the Jinchuriki paled considerably and looked at her as if she had just now signed her own death warrant.

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Asami and Norinaga marched wordlessly over the icy snow crunching under the weight of their feet. The duo advanced hastily and eventually arrived at a smouldering ruin illuminated by a macabre dance of flickering fires and shrinking shadows. The field hospital had been completely obliterated by a destructive blast, and everything which remained was an unintelligible mass of burned corpses. Their deaths were quick, that was certain.

The cold air was silent, so silent. None of the arriving ANBU said anything, but their silence said more than any human words could ever hope to do. Because the ANBU realised that someone among them had to be the culprit. Someone among them was behind this explosion and was responsible for killing them. The question was only who? Who was it?

The majority of the onlookers suspected a certain present girl who currently inspected the remnants of the deceased shinobi. The girl kneeled and one minute past. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes. As expected, the detonation lacked the necessary energy to instantly vaporize their bodies. Instead, her Katon had failed in this regard and simply charred their skin. Asami rose from the ground covered in ashes. She had seen everything she needed.

Shevleft the scene while the destructive flames were still roaring in the background and highlighted her figure like an enlightening corona. Asami passed Konosuke, Ino, Koichi, Akahito. But suddenly, she halted." I think that now is not the right time to mourn the dead. Instead, I recommend that everyone present should get as much sleep as possible, because we will need to be well rested for tomorrow. At 08:00 we will mobilise and attempt a breakthrough, do you understand me?"

Asami didn't accept any opposition. Her voice filled with determination and icy coldness. Gone was any pretence of childish friendliness or kindness. It was obvious to all present that her statement shouldn't be mistaken for a mere suggestion, her words were an order which left no room for debate or discussion. Her command was absolute. Asami continued walking, but Akahito grabbed her forcefully by her shoulder.

His vengeful eyes bored into her," You killed them, didn't you?"

Not bothered at all by his accusations, Asami deflected his hand and pushed her masked face against Akahito's." Pardon, could you please repeat what you just said, Akahito? Because I think I have misheard you."

"Don't play dumb, you bitch. You know what I mean, you murdered them."

The Uchiha took off her porcelain mask off and revealed a pair of pitch black onyx eyes decorating her pale white and unblemished skin." Murder? Isn't that a strong word, Akahito? And what kind of proof do you have, Akahito? What kind of substantial evidence can you present to support your ridiculous thesis besides baseless accusations, Akahito? Exactly, you have nothing to support you aside from wild speculations. And now stop bothering me with this idiocy, Akahito."

Akahito fell silent like everyone else. They had nothing, absolutely nothing which could prove her involvement. And Asami knew it perfectly well.

Konosuke was visibly uncertain, Ino was outwardly neutral, and Koichi looked at her with a certain sense of pity. They didn't reply and avoided her gaze.

"So you believe Akahito? The words of a man who is obviously unable to control his emotions?" Asami stared at them expectantly. Nevertheless, no answer came.

"We will meet again at 08:00 tomorrow." Asami disappeared.

No questions were asked afterwards concerning the exact nature of the incident. Nobody had any real interest in solving the mystery surrounding the explosion which had cost the lives of six ANBU.

They all knew that it had been her who killed them, but the majority of them simply wanted to move on and forget about the incident. And a few ANBU were secretly thankful for what the girl had done. Because not every Konoha shinobi was particularly eager to die prematurely. And Akahito couldn't make any move against Asami without any sort of solid evidence.

Especially, when said girl was practically a new legendary Kunoichi in the making. Asami was a new powerful weapon who according to rumours massacred a small Kiri army entirely on her own. And it was understood that Konoha could not do without her.

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"Have any of you seen that big explosion last night?" asked Tsuyoshi. He was placed together with Miyoko on guard duty yesterday. Both were tasked to keep watch on the nearby village where the Konoha ANBU were apparently hiding.

Ano was sitting beside her best friend Yoriko and tilted her head in confusion." A big explosion? I don't know anything about one, but it would certainly explain the loud bang I heard."

"Yesh, you should have seen it. The fireball was massive and illuminated nearly the entire horizon. Whatever it was and whoever caused it, the explosion was definitely powerful", Miyoko described the incident.

Kenji was more reserved. " Miyoko, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but please don't speak of giant explosions while we are eating. Especially, when the chances are considerably high that whoever caused it is one of the Konoha ANBU. Because I don't like the idea of ending up on the receiving end of our mysterious explosion."

"You are always the pessimist, Kenji. You know, you are no fun at all." Miyoko stuck her tongue out.

"Yes, yes, I know, but worrying and being pessimistic is part of my job as the improvised Captain of this squad, isn't it, Naruhiko?"

Kenji asked his old childhood friend for his opinion, or rather for his support. Naruhiko, however, found the idea equally ridiculous." You, our Captain? Not in a million years. You might be my best friend, Kenji, but I hope you are joking."

Kenji was startled by his lack of faith." Why not? Don't I have all the qualities a squad leader needs?"

"Ehmmm, no, not all. You are often complicated to work with, exceedingly stubborn and have little patience in general. In summary, not at all." Yoriko debunked his momentary delusions of grandeur with brutal honesty.

"Aargh, that hurts. Your words are as sharp as always, Yoriko." Kenji placed both of his hands on the right portion of his chest, simulating being stabbed through the heart.

"Hahahaha!" The surrounding Chunin could only laugh about his little performance.

The eight Chunin knew each other well, basically ever since their days back in the shinobi academy. They had already fought and worked together on several missions. You could say they were a well-oiled team, which was probably the primary reason that they were put together in the same squad for this operation. And the fact that Naruhiko had a rather high-ranking friend among the present ANBU who were in command of this operation.

Two of the Chunin, Kinnosuke and Yorikane to be exact, were currently missing, however, as they had to play scout for the moment and keeping a watch on the village. After all, their squad was ordered to guard the southern sector of their miniature pocket.

"Anyway, Naruhiko, has your 'friendly acquaintance' given you any information why we are even here? Because I would like to know why we are right now practically assembling a small army in the middle of nowhere?" Kenji was serious.

"Don't know, I have no idea. He didn't tell me anything directly, but Shino indicated that something unexpected had happened to two of their ANBU squads, something that wasn't pleasant. And as a consequence, their Captain has called for every single available shinobi in the vicinity, and apparently even an entire platoon of Hunter-nin has been temporarily attached to us. They are supposed to arrive within a few hours. But why exactly? As I said before, I have no idea. Shino's lips remained sealed in that regard, no matter what." Naruhiko shrugged his shoulders,

Kenji had a bad feeling, a very bad feeling. Because you didn't pull together two full companies of regular shinobi together with an unknown number of ANBU and now even Hunter-nin for fun. There was a reason that they were here, and there was a reason why such a large force was necessary to complete this operation. They were about to fight fighting an immensely powerful opponent. And Kenji interiorly feared that was the case. But who was this frightening enemy?

"Hey, you should all come quickly. I think Yorikane and I have spotted something interesting." Kinnosuke appeared out of the wood and informed the group. They followed him without hesitation and together they quickly reached the observation post where Yorikane observed through a pair of binoculars the outwardly calm village.

"So, what have you spotted, then?" Kenji felt an enigmatic sense of uneasiness growing in his stomach.

"Look for yourself, it is right there." Yorikane handed him another pair of binoculars. Kenji took them hesitantly and what he saw was a group of masked individuals gathering far away from their position.

Obviously, these were the Konoha ANBU and they were led by a relatively short person clothed in a white fur coat. The girl seemed to be in command of them and was barking some sort of orders. Apparently, they were discussing something with her. Something important.

Kenji couldn't be one hundred percent certain, but she had to be young. The girl couldn't be any older than 14 years at most, which was highly unusual for any kind of ANBU.

The group suddenly began to move and crossed the snowy plains. They were coming directly towards them. As expected, the Konoha ANBU were fast, and they would soon reach their position. After all, these people weren't considered the elite of their village for nothing, but the girl clad in white was another case entirely. The girl wasn't simply fast, she was frighteningly fast, and the distance between them was shrinking rapidly with every second passing. It was only a matter of time before the flickering lightning reached them. Kenji gulped.

"What the hell is that? Do you see it, Kenji?" Yorikane held on to his binoculars with trembling hands. Yorikane might maintain his schooled façade excellently, but this little detail betrayed his nervousness and expressed conclusively that they shared the same thought. Kenji remained silent and followed the girl's movements who instead was fortunately still two or three kilometres away. Nevertheless, he immediately realised they were fucked, they were totally fucked if the girl was even by a small margin as good of a fighter as she was fast, which was pretty much guaranteed. They had to get out of here, quickly.

Kenji might not have served for long, but in his limited experience any fast shinobi was an extremely dangerous shinobi. He readied unconsciously a handful of explosive tags from his pouch. "I think we should leave our position after we have alerted the main force with a flar… "

Kenji stopped and his eyes grew wide in panic. The girl turned her head towards them and Kenji could have sworn that beneath her white mask she was smiling. She had spotted them, the girl had spotted them. She knew exactly where they were and that wasn't good at all. But how? How was that possible from this distance? That shouldn't be possible, unless…

"DOWN!" The girl threw a kunai and Kenji cried out. As his instincts told him, he threw himself immediately into the cold snow, which was an intelligent decision as he quickly found out.

Normally, the kunai should have never reached them, considering the enormous distance, but that wasn't the case. A shimmering kunai flew past his head and nearly killed him. Kenji had literally dodged death itself. He held his breath together with the rest of the squad.

Kenji was terrified and set his eyes on the lightning coated kunai which had been plunged deeply into the tree behind them. What was that? In a blink of an eye, the kunai flew past them.. No kunai could ever reach such a velocity. It was ... it was as if it had been … teleported.

"We have to…" Kenji noticed that the kunai was shining a dark amethyst-like purple, a shade of purple that didn't indicate anything remotely good. A crackling sound similar to an electrostatic discharge announced her arrival. Clad in pure innocent white, the girl stood there, right before him. She drew her sword and vanished again.

Ano was stabbed from behind while still on the ground. The nearby Tsuyoshi was beheaded by her follow up. Yoriko fell next and Miyoko too. Both were simply sliced apart as if they were nothing. Naruhiko and Kinnosuke met the same fate and died.

A straight thrust aimed for his heart finished Naruhiko while her lightning speared Kinnosuke. The girl bashed Yorikane's skull against a nearby tree and splintered his cranium completely in the process. They were all dead and he couldn't do anything at all. The girl had killed everyone in a matter of mere seconds and he was now doomed as well.

A sharp blade struck through Kenji's chest and left a hole of emptiness. The smell of burnt flesh filled his nose and Kenji knew that it was over. The demon in white sheathed her sword and his lifeless corpse fell to the soft snow. Lying in the cold snow, Kenji ground his teeth and ignored the pain. Mobilising all his willpower, Kenji didn't scream in agony. Because he was supposed to be dead, and dead men didn't scream. Because he was supposed to be killed like everyone else, slaughtered like ignorant sheep without ever standing the slightest chance. Kenji wanted to get revenge on the girl, every fibre of his body cried for vengeance, for retribution.

The girl stepped away from him, creating inside him a false sense of security, which was the opportunity he had waited for the whole time. Using all of his remaining force, Kenji threw his pouch full of explosive tags right at her. He might die, but he would take her with him.

The following explosion of nearly a hundred tags was magnificent and a sight to behold. The flash nearly blinded Kenji while the enormous blast echoed through the entire forest. Kenji coughed until the floating dust finally cleared and revealed the demon to the world again. The girl didn't die. No, she wasn't even scratched in the slightest.

In the middle of the giant crater, stood calm but slightly surprised a girl who was shielded by a purple humanoid skeleton. The girl didn't move and evaluated him with a calculating stare while her armour was slowly dematerializing, dissolving into a fine purple mist of Chakra.

The girl smirked behind her mask as she fixed her eyes on where his heart should have been." So you have somehow survived, and it wasn't just my imagination that you were still breathing. Tsk, tsk, tsk, luck doesn't seem to be on my side today because you are apparently a rare case of dextrocardia, aren't you, my friend? And that is very unfortunate."

"Do you know that I originally planned to be kind and avoid any major direct confrontation with the main Kiri force? We would have left without you even noticing that we had left. But unfortunately, your little action from before disrupted my plans quite a bit by alerting the rest of your little army. And now I have to kill all of them." Asami finished her sentence and drew her white sword. This time she didn't miss. She skewered his heart.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

"What did you say?" The red haired Genin glared at her with an admirable intensity for somehow who was such a tender age, the boy actually almost scared her. Asami scratched her head innocently." Ehmmm, uhmmmmm, ehhhhhh. Actually, everything I said shouldn't be taken too seriou… RUN!"

Hisaaki and Katsusane sprinted to the entrance unwillingly putting all their trust in the girl who was constantly gambling with their lives for fun, which they didn't like for obvious reasons. Teleporting behind the clueless Ame girl, Asami grabbed the unprotected Earth Scroll successfully and vanished instantly afterwards. After all, the girl had what she needed and she had already played enough with her new friends. The heavy tower doors closed behind the trio and thus her team set a new all-time record for the second part of the exam, 16:04 minutes.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	24. Arc III Asami-chan's War College III

**III**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc III Asami-chan's War College III**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Lecture: Foreign Armies East, North and West**

 **organised by the High Command of the ANBU in cooperation with ONI for educational purposes**

 **Lecturer: ANBU Col. Minami Asami**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

As everyone of you should know, it is generally advisable to keep your friends close but your enemies always closer. Therefore, we have today a special intelligence session concerning Konoha's temporary friends and unreliable allies, and our known enemies in the world of shinobi. I will give you an overview in regard to their organisation and a brief personal assessment of the quality of their troops.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Sunagakure/ Kirigakure Organisation: Ranks and units**

* * *

 **Unit** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ **Strength (commissioned officers excluded)** ∙∙∙∙∙ **Commanding Officer**

* * *

 **Ø** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 1 = 1 Shinobi ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-1 Shinobi (Private)

● Team ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4 = Team leader 1 l + 3 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-2 Team leader (Corporal)

●● Squad ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 8 = 1 Squad leader + 1 Medic + 6 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-3 Squad leader (Sergeant)

●●● Platoon ∙∙∙ 40= 5*8 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-1 Lieutenant

* * *

 **I** Company ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 200 = 5*40 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-2 Captain

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-3 Major

 **II** Battalion ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 800 = 4*200 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-4 Lieutenant Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

 **III** Regiment ∙∙∙∙ x = x*800 (mostly ad hoc formations) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

* * *

 **X** Brigade∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4,000 = 5*800 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-7 Major General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-8 Lieutenant General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

 **XX** Division∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 16,000 = 4*4,000 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Sunagakure:**

Due to the unfortunate fact that Suna is one of our allies at the moment, I haven't had yet the privilege to face them on the battlefield and thus I can't say much about them. But based on what I have heard from veterans of the Second Shinobi World War, their shinobi are, apparently, quite good, albeit small in numbers. They are tactically flexible, ingenuous and determined. Or to keep it short, they aren't an opponent you should underestimate.

 **Kirigakure:**

Judging by the few times that I have crossed my sword with Kiri-nin, I can conclude that they are, all in all, a very interesting mix. On the one hand, they are insidious, able to quickly adapt to changing situations and grasp the right opportunities, and generally methodical in their approach. On the other hand, Kiri shinobi are quite brittle in my experience when it comes down to morale and tend to disintegrate quite easily if they are confronted with a superior hostile force. To summarize, you can break their will to fight without much effort if you use overwhelming firepower on them.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Iwagakure/Kumogakure Organisation: Ranks and units**

* * *

 **Unit** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ **Strength (commissioned officers excluded)** ∙∙∙∙∙ **Commanding officer**

* * *

 **Ø** ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 1 = 1 Shinobi ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-1 Shinobi (Private)

● Team ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4 = Team leader 1 l + 3 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-2 Team leader (Corporal)

●● Squad ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 12 = 1 Squad leader + 1 Medic + 10 S ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OR-3 Squad leader (Sergeant)

●●● Platoon ∙∙∙ 60 = 5*12 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-1 Lieutenant

* * *

 **I** Company ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 300 = 5*60 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-2 Captain

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-3 Major

 **II** Battalion ∙∙∙∙∙∙ 900 = 3*300 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-4 Lieutenant Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

 **III** Regiment ∙∙∙∙ x = x*900 (mostly ad hoc formations) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-5 Colonel

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

* * *

 **X** Brigade∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 4,500 = 5*900 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-6 Brigade General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-7 Major General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-8 Lieutenant General

∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

 **XX** Division∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ 18,000 = 4*4,500 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ OF-9 General

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Now we come to the two real elephants in the room, the two undoubtable military powerhouses, which is reflected in their organization. As you might have spotted already, Kumo and Iwa have larger units compared to us and the other neighbouring nations, which is due to their naturally large number of shinobi and reserves.

 **Iwagakure:**

In my humble opinion, two words describe the character of Iwa forces the most, stupid tenacity as well as tenacious stupidity. Either way, Iwa-nin are horribly annoying to fight against, in the sense that they simply won't do you a favour and die quickly. No, instead, they normally fight until the bitter end and never, never, never give up, which is, as I have said, extremely annoying. Therefore, I recommend you to not bother with them too much and decimate them completely, right down to the last men and without exception.

Otherwise, they are proficient when it comes to defending, good at digging in and preparing the battlefield in advance, and they will always stand their ground no matter the losses, which is, however, nothing too surprising considering their elemental nature. On the offense they are like a juggernaut, slow, immobile and cumbersome at the beginning. But when they strike, they will strike hard and send wave after wave at you even if they are all running into their own demise like lemmings.

 **Kumogakure:**

Kumogakure forces are probably the most dangerous and professional ones you might encounter during your future ANBU career. They are well trained, disciplined, and on average quite good at close quarter combat. Furthermore, they are always extremely aggressive and usually prefer the active offense over the passive defence. Kumo-nin will constantly attack you without delay and will try to maintain their momentum at any cost. They will keep you constantly busy until you yield by or they can finally finish you. My personal advice on them is that you should concentrate as much firepower as possible and simply carpet bomb the entire area, drop everything you have on them.

The next week we will treat a more abstract topic, but an interesting one nevertheless" War: The continuation of politics by other means or the bankruptcy of politics?"

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	25. Arc III Chapter VII

**III**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc III Chapter VII**

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

"You will never and I repeat never, ever do such a thing again when I am around. Do you understand, Asami?" A mentally fatigued Katsusane leaned against the heavy metal door.

"Why? Didn't my plan work out rather well? We have our scroll, we have passed the exam, we are first ones and on top of all of that, we just had to rely on our intelligence, or rather my intellect instead of brute strength. Wouldn't you consider that a huge success, Katsusane?" Asami stood in the middle of an extraordinarily badly illuminated room.

"A success it was, but at what price? Did you not see the eyes of the Suna Genin? The boy really wanted to kill you. Do you not realise that, Asami?" Katsusane asked, bewildered. But his question showed her once again that there were worlds between her and them. In the end, Asami was an ANBU, an Uchiha, and more. While they were simply… Genin.

Hissaki and Katsusane might be more talented compared to your average Genin, but they lacked nonetheless her experience. Like the majority of Genin, they hadn't experienced yet a taste of 'real' combat and they didn't know how real undiluted hatred felt. She however, had. Compared to what she had seen, a wannabe Jinchuriki was nothing.

Asami rolled her eyes, "Easy Katsusane, he was admittedly a bit scary…"

"A bit scary? Didn't you see the hatred in his eyes? The Suna-nin was practically about to rip you apart."

"Firstly, don't interrupt me while I am speaking, Katsusane. And secondly, I have seen far worse than an arrogant brat with a little bit of power at his disposal trying to intimidate me. Ergo, could you be so kind as to stop bothering me with such trivialities?" Asami pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

Moments like these were driving her nearly to despair. Fortunately, her personal martyrdom should be over soon. According to her information, the next exam was supposed to be the last.

And surprisingly and unexpectedly, nothing major had happened to compromise her cover, which was a bad sign in her opinion. In her experience, something always went wrong. The question was only why, who, when and what exactly.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Two squads of masked ANBU were marching through an improvised field camp full of wounded shinobi, missing arms, amputated feet, and splintered bones. In short, the typical. The group was led by their Captain, a girl clad in her notorious black kimono.

The various shinobi quickly parted and made way for them. Either because your common sense told you that ANBU were generally busy people and you should let them through, even when they were probably the biggest assholes under the sun.

Or because you were actually one of the few who actually recognized who the infamous Kunoichi in her characteristic black steel armour was. A girl who was just a few steps away from entering the pantheon of legendary Konoha shinobi, just a few steps away from being mentioned in the same breath beside the Sannin, the White Fang, the Yellow Flash. If you were part of this group, then you surely didn't want to block her path. Especially, when she appeared to be slightly pissed off like at the moment, which wasn't a good sign.

Under the leadership of an extremely irritated Uchiha, the two squads were currently searching for the de facto command post amid this sea of green tents and what remained of a beaten and severely decimated battalion. And there Asami hoped to find the current commanding officer, a certain Colonel Naritomo plus the rest of his incompetent staff which was supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity. Because they had a lot to explain and Asami was interested in how these idiots succeeded in nearly wiping out a small army, or rather losing four entire companies on their own in a matter of days. The Sarutobi was about to have a serious conversation with her, that was certain. Because she would have answers, one way or another.

Eventually, Asami reached the assumed command post, the largest tent in the area and it was guarded by two young Chunin. A girl and boy, they were barely seventeen. And for some inexplicable reason, both appeared to be slightly intimidated by her approaching figure. Why? Was she so frightening?

In the meanwhile, Asami inspected what remained of the battalion, which was not a significant number. Apparently, they had taken quite a beating in their latest attempts to retake the city. Based on the field reports and the overall casualty figures, the assaults had failed spectacularly.

And their next assault would meet the same fate if things didn't change soon. But fortunately for them, things were about to change, and quite drastically. A solution was needed and something had to be done.

The entire operation was a disaster from the very beginning and it had already become a veritable meat grinder. While their losses were slowly piling up and had reached an unacceptable level, the fighting still dragged on with no end in sight. According to her limited information, Konoha had already lost three full companies and failed nevertheless to recapture Shimabara from the rebel force, even though it was essentially just a better village with a few more people.

Whatever, the majority of the losses, seventy percent, consisted of useless Genin cannon fodder, which was probably the main reason that the village council or High command hadn't intervened sooner despite the disastrous situation. Ultimately, your average Genin was fairly cheap and expendable compared against their experienced Jonin or Chunin counterparts who were harder to come by these days.

Konoha had been sieging the town for a full week and they were unable to even gain a small foothold despite several consecutive assaults. As a consequence, the Fire Daimyo was slowly growing more and more concerned about the fact that Konoha was apparently unable to suppress a simple peasant revolt. Perhaps he should request the assistance of another hidden village, a more competent one?

Because the Daimyo feared that the rebellion might spread further across the Land of Fire and quite a few of his counsellors demanded a show of force to finally quell any existing discontent in the region.

And that was the reason why Asami had been dispatched. She was renowned for her efficiency and effectiveness even among the ANBU. She was someone whom Konoha dispatched to not only defeat an enemy, but to eradicate.

She was here to finally break the ongoing stalemate and crush the rebellion at any cost, as fast as possible. These were her orders by the Hokage and the village council, and both were rather explicit about what needed to be done. Shimabara had to be taken and it was entirely up to her whether or not it was left a lifeless ruin.

Asami entered the tent and was greeted by a series of curious stares. Leaning over the tactical map of Shimabara, the various Chunin and Jonin looked up and eyed the ominous girl with suspicion. Who was she?

Asami narrowed her eyes behind her ANBU mask. " So, who among all of you dunderheads is the infamous Colonel Naritomo? Because I have been ordered to personally relieve him of command due to his staggering incompetence. So, who is the idiot who was able to throw away a small army and has nevertheless failed to conquer even a single door knob despite facing 'just a mob of armed peasants without any proper military training'?"

Her words didn't earn her any friends, but Asami didn't particularly care. She had orders and Shimabara would fall no matter the cost.

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"And who the fuck are you supposed to be? Do you really think you can simply come here and order everyone around?" A foolishly brave Chunin was the first to react. He glared at her. Asami turned her head slowly towards him and observed the Chunin calmly through her eye slits.

"Who I am, really? You are actually asking who I am?" the girl giggled ominously and the Chunin unconsciously took a step away from her, uncomfortably experiencing her unnaturally black eyes augering deeply into his soul.

"Lynx, do you know who I am? Could you please illuminate them on the subject?" Asami directed her question to a certain ANBU.

After a short time, Fu answered her purely rhetorical question for her as humourlessly as usual as you might expect it from a former Root member," Tiger, ANBU, Captain of the current task force, Ninja registration number 011567, full name Min…"

"Right, right, that should be enough for now." Asami interrupted him before he could spill anything important.

Moreover, Fu proved once again that the largely indoctrinated Root ANBU had blank personalities. They were in fact boring as hell and were always far too serious.

"Anyway, with introductions being over, let's get down to business now. As you may have found already, I was specifically sent to clean up your mess. It's not my mess, but your mess." Asami used a more conciliatory undertone and presented the group a scroll upon which was affixed the seal of the Hokage.

The girl placed the scroll on the table while staring down any form of opposition. "This order was signed by Hokage himself and it grants me the authority to officially take full command of this operation and all forces involved."

Asami took a nearby chair and kicked up her crossed legs onto the table." And now I will request… No, I demand immediately an explanation regarding how a full battalion of trained shinobi couldn't contain a simple uprising which was started by a few angry farmers who couldn't pay their taxes? Because I am curious about how you were able to achieve that?"

Her gaze swept the room until she set her eyes on one specific shinobi. He was a man in his mid-twenties, a Jonin probably, and he reciprocated her stare with fierce determination. Naritomo may be young, naive and still a bit green behind the ears, but the Sarutobi had at least steel in him and wasn't intimidated by her in the slightest.

Her reliable instincts told her that Naritomo surely wasn't the most incompetent commander to have ever served. To be honest, she had expected to meet once again one of these typical bragging idiots who had gained their position only by sheer luck and the necessary connections as it was often the case. Instead, Naritomo appeared to be someone she could work with.

But what was the reason then why Konoha had suffered three crushing defeats in a row? Morale was still relatively high and the command was apparently not entirely inept and the troops they had were not particularly shabby either. Although the majority consisted of newly conscripted Genin, a battalion should be nevertheless more than adequate to deal with a few unruly rebels. So, why the heck in this whole world were they completely routed three times? Things simply didn't add up because she was obviously missing some crucial pieces of information.

Asami didn't receive an answer until Naritomo ground his teeth and finally responded," Because this isn't just a simple uprising, Captain. Contrary to your information, the situation is quite complicated."

Asami ignored the aggression in his voice. She had the feeling that she was getting closer to the truth. "And? What is the problem, then? Tell me about it, Naritomo, what is it?"

"The problem is, Captain, that we are currently fighting a disciplined and well-organized rebellion and know that it is not at all a 'headless mob'."

The girl furrowed an eyebrow in disbelief. " So, you really want to tell me that we have gotten our asses handed to us by a bunch of stupid and somewhat organised rice farmers?"

"Yes, no… Well, no, not directly. The rebels have several rogue shinobi and mercenaries on their side, which isn't the real issue, however. More concerning is the fact that they are supported logistically and militarily by an unidentified third party." Naritomo scratched his head uneasily.

"What do you mean by logistically and militarily, Naritomo?" Asami was now interested.

"Well, the rebels seem to be in possession of considerable amounts of explosives and weapons, which should be normally restricted only to professional shinobi and the hidden villages. Therefore, we suspect that someone is supplying them with the necessary material and is assisting them with turning Shimabara into a veritable fortress. These people have practically mined and booby trapped every street, every house and every single door."

"Moreover, a significant number of hostile ANBU seem to operate in the area and they are constantly harassing us with their hit and run tactics. Their exact numbers and allegiance are unknown at the moment, but we think that they are probably from Kumogakure."

The last detail earned Asami's attention, "From Kumo you say? How do you know that is the case? And more importantly, why didn't you mention in any of the field reports that we are practically fighting a proxy war against rebels aided and funded by Kumogakure?"

"Wouldn't that have been a good idea?" Asami narrowed her eyes and observed his reaction.

But Narimoto wasn't bothered at all by her stare, or at least he didn't show it. " Well, we didn't even have any idea that Kumo was here to begin with. Sure, some squads have suddenly disappeared here and there, but we didn't have any clue about that it was themuntil this morning."

"Could you please elaborate?" Asami furrowed an eyebrow.

"A squad has clashed today with the Kumo-nin and Captain Hidetsugu apparently recognised their Kenjutsu."

"Their Kenjutsu?"

"You don't know it, but Hidetsugu was stationed in the North during the Third Shinobi War and had therefore often fought against various Kumo units. He said that the used a sword style was in his opinion typical for Kumogakure. Especially, for their ANBU." Naritomo indicated and his words quickly convinced her.

Asami rose from her comfortable chair and let her pale white hand slowly glide over the tactical map of the besieged city. She waited a few seconds before sighing deeply. " I think I owe you an apology for calling you incompetent, Naritomo, including the rest of your men. Based on what you have said, I can find no major faults in your actions aside from making minor mistakes such as not informing Konoha sooner about all of these 'strange' occurrences, which is excusable, however."

Asami touched a certain point on the map. " Naritomo, haven't you said that they have turned Shimabara into a fortress, is that right?"

Naritomo cleared his throat. "Yes, the rebels have erected several strongpoints within the city and are blocking all of the major roads. And everywhere else the difficult urban terrain, a lot of narrow streets and cramped buildings, makes it almost impossible to advance without being ambushed from all sides."

"I see", the girl analyzed the present situation, which was definitely tricky. Asami reflected in her mind on how she should take on such a strongly fortified city with her limited resources and while avoiding any sort of costly urban combat against the Kumo ANBU which by experience and reputation excelled in urban combat.

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After a few minutes, Asami came to a conclusion and spoke," I think I have a solution in regards to our little problem."

"And that would be?" Naritomo was doubtful.

"Well, if we want to avoid any heavy street fighting and capture Shimabara, then we simply have to level the playing field a bit, in the literal sense of the word", Asami explained calmly.

"What do you mean by levelling the playing field?" Naritomo had a hunch, but he didn't like the answer at all.

"Isn't it evident? If you don't plan on manually clearing out every single fighting position, house, room and basement within a radius of a few miles, then simply flatten the entire area with massive firepower. We will just destroy every building standing in our way. We will remove the enemy's cover." A excited Asami explained, using a sweet girlish voice.

"What's the matter?" Asami asked Naritomo who kept staring at her alongside with everyone else as if they had seen a ghost.

Naritomo hesitated. "Do you understand the implications of what you are proposing?"

"I can't follow." Asami was confused, tilting her head. She didn't understand at which point she had lost him. What about her concept of complete and indiscriminate destruction was so difficult to grasp?

"Thousands of innocent civilians will die if we enact this strategy, don't you see that?" Naritomo reacted furiously, but Asami didn't appear to be bothered at all by his accusations.

"Firstly, I beg to differ, Nartiomo, thousands can hardly be considered a realistic estimate. In my opinion, we will have at least between fifteen thousand and thirty thousand civilian casualties depending on how long the fighting will last. And secondly, Naritomo, what's the problem?"

"After all, isn't it normal that a few thousand might perish in the flames of war during such an little operation?. And certainly, we could request further reinforcements and feed the proverbial meat grinder with more corpses until we achieve aour morally clean victory by sheer weight of mass. But is that truly what you wish for, Naritomo? No, I don't think you doso." Asami was a bit disappointed with Naritomo and she shook her head.

It was awkwardly silent within the tent and Asami granted the other shinobi a few minutes to regain their composure.

Naritomo sighed in doubt, "Regardless of that, how exactly are we supposed to achieve that? We don't have the necessary manpower for your destructive approach and I don't think that anyone among us is strong enough to raze an entire city."

Asami replied cheerfully," It's good that you ask, Naritomo. Let's say, I am currently developing a new Jutsu, a little personal project of mine. While my Jutsu isn't completed yet and I am still dissatisfied with the overall performance. Nevertheless, my prototype should be ready for use and powerful enough to eliminate any specific strongpoints if necessary."

"A new Jutsu?" Naritomo was surprised as were many other shinobi. Because it was practically unheard of that someone was already developing their own personalised Jutsu at such a young age, excepting for a truereal geniuses. And it was now that Naritomo took a better look at the girl's attire after all the trouble she had caused. Who was the girl?

Realisation struck him like lightning and Naritomo realised whom they were precisely speaking to the whole time. It finally dawned on the shinobi that one of Konoha's most dangerous individuals was standing right in front of them, a little girl, a girl who could probably kill any of them and call it a mere warm-up.

His eyes went wide while a happy Asami was entirely focused on demonstrating them proudly the basic concept behind her technique. She did so because it was essentially impossible, or rather exceedingly difficult to reproduce this Jutsu without the abilities of her Mangekyo Sharingan.

Moreover, Asami was slightly excited by the fact that she could soon use the Jutsu she had worked extensively on the last five years.

Asami stretched out her arm and produced in her open palm a small nucleus of Chakra. A series of spheres were swirling around it. She presented her beloved creation to her audience. " This is the first stage of the Jutsu, the creation of a simple sphere of concentrated Chakra."

"Now, we come to the second stage. Most of you have probably noticed over the course of your shinobi career that the amount of Chakra used for a Jutsu has indeed a significant influence on the potency of the Jutsu. The more Chakra you use, the hotter your Katon, the stronger your Raiton, the better your Suiton, the sharper your Futon. And the same principle can be applied to my spheres." Following Asami's words, the sphere grew in size and then shrank.

"If you utilise more of my Chakra, then my sphere will inevitably expand despite the fact that Chakra is, in theory, supposed to be incorporeal and massless. So, why does the sphere expand? The only explanation is that Chakra possesses a natural tendency to increase its volume, a force which continuously tries to expand."

"What will happen, however, if we increase the Chakra density, but retain the original volume? Exactly, this unknown expanding force will be caged in and will be unable to release its energy. And now we combine my Chakra with my two elemental affinities, Katon and Raiton, to generate even more power."

Asami enriched the outer spheres with her elemental Chakra and made them turn a pure bright bluish-white which glimmered in the dark room. Every nearby sensor ninja could practically feel the raw energy radiating from the construct and the enormous quantities of condensed Chakra. This thing wasn't just dangerous, it was deadly.

"And the last step is to compress the Chakra as much as possible in order to increase the overall 'pressure'", suddenly, Asami clenched her hand and in a fraction of a second the spheres imploded and formed a contracted nucleus of pure white Chakra.

But it didn't stop there, the overloaded nucleus got smaller and smaller and smaller. In the end, only an almost invisible particle remained, a minuscule shining grain of Chakra peacefully floating over her open palm.

But all the while, Asami focused her left Mangekyo on the concentrated Chakra to maintain the pressure. Because one slip in her concentration and her destructive invention would go off and rip the whole room apart, and that was not desirable.

"And then my lovely sphere makes a boom." The girl raised her right palm to her mouth and bleow her creation away, but the Chakra didn't dissipate.

No, the tiny grain simply disappeared as if it had never existed to begin with. Asami knew, however, that her Mangekyo was responsible for this miraculous phenomenon.

The girl was so focused upon her technical explanation that she didn't notice how the surrounding shinobi began to look at her with slight fear.

Naritomo asked unsurely," And how strong is this explosion expected to be?"

Asami scratched her head because she didn't know if shinobi had something like a TNT equivalent or anything similar.," Well, I have absolutely no idea. Theoretically, the maximum yield could be anything ranging from nothing to significant depending on the amount of Chakra I use. However, it is the first time I will use this Jutsu and I am not sure whether it will even work. So, like I said before, I have no idea."

The majority of the present people gaped at her. Naritomo summarized concisely," So, you want to tell us that your brilliant new Jutsu probably doesn't even work?"

Asami tilted her head and tipped her chin. "Yes, more or less. If you put it like that, then I sound kind of stupid, but whatever."

"I can guarantee you, however, that the Jutsu's will work. Therefore, don't worry, Naritomo. Alternatively, I will just tear down every building by more conventional means and if necessary with my own bare hands, albeit the latter option shouldn't be particularly that effective considering my small hands." Asami inspected her tiny hands and came to the quick conclusion that going that route wasn't a particularly good idea.

"But before we raze everything to the ground, let's try for a more civilised possible solution, diplomacy." Asami surprised her audience.

Naritomo blinked. "Diplomacy?"

Asami smiled mischievously. "Yes, diplomacy."

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Their little group approached the city gates manned by a few Kumo ANBU observing all of their steps. Asami was accompanied by her trustfully untrustworthy companions, the Root ANBU trio consisting of orange Lynx, the Aburame Panther and inky Hawk, and an unlucky Naritomo for representative reasons.

Naritomo kept an eye on the hostile ANBU who were slowly surrounding them. He gulped and he was seriously questioning Asami's decision to come to this place." Captain, I don't think that it was a particularly good idea to come here."

"Really? Why do you think so, Narimoto?" Asami strolled ahead, approaching the apparent leader of the Kumo ANBU.

"Because we will probably achieve nothing." And because he was worried. Naritomo gulped again as he stared at the threatening Kumo ANBU. They were outnumbered by them.

"Well, to be honest, I don't expect any real results from our little peace summit."

"So, why are we even here, in that case?"

Asami sighed heavily." Moments like these, Naritomo, effectively demonstrate that you still have a lot to learn in your life. Don't forget that diplomacy and all sort of peace talks have in the rarest of cases the intention to produce any actual results besides empty declarations, because that isn't their primary purpose. Diplomacy is all about keeping up appearances and gentle smiles."

The girl explained calmly," If we destroy the city without a valid reason, then they will call us murderers, criminals, soulless monsters, etc., etc. If we give them, however, the chance to capitulate or at least retreat peacefully, then we have our pretext, demonstrating that we have done everything within our capabilities to avoid such needless bloodshed and that they have doomed themselves by opposing us."

"Even though we know perfectly well that our enemy will reject our purely formal offer which was never meant to be taken seriously, Naritomo." Asami smiled diabolically and Naritomo was slightly shivering. She was a tiny scary, wasn't she?

Asami closed the distance between her and the Kumo Captain. Guarded by two ANBU, the man addressed her suddenly," So, you are indeed the White Death herself. Originally, I thought that your messenger was joking when he told our rebel friends that you were calling for a personal meeting with us. And I didn't expect that you were one preferring to talk things out instead of fighting."

Asami chuckled derisively in her typical manner and gave the ANBU the feeling that he wasn't even worthy of kissing the very ground upon which his princess was walking." Don't be disappointed. In contrast to a certain individual standing right in front of me, I know that you should choose your battles wisely and you don't have to fight every single battle. Especially, if my enemies are just a few insignificant ANBU barely worthy of my undivided attention."

Her words achieved the desired effect and the Kumo ANBU ground his teeth audibly. The ANBU gripped his sword firmly." So, what do you want then?"

"Well, I called you together to make you an offer, or rather to give you an ultimatum. Either Kumogakure will immediately withdraw all forces, regular as well as irregular ones, from Shimabara and persuade your friends to peacefully surrender the city to Konohagakure until tomorrow. Or you will face prompt and utter destruction."

"Are you mad, girl? Do you really think we have any interest in making it so easy for you?" The Captain laughed loudly, amused by her naivety.

Asami stepped closer and as a reaction his two guards drew their swords. One man held a Ninjato with a grain pattern shimmering in the dark moonlight.

" I think you misunderstand, my friend. This isn't a matter of making it easy for anyone. Instead, you should consider my proposal more as your last chance and my last warning to you. Because like I said before, beyond this point waits…", Asami stopped abruptly.

"Have you lost your words, or what? What waits beyond this point for us, tell me?" He taunted her, but the girl ignored his ineffective words. Instead, Asami's eyes were fixed on the guard standing next to him and his sword. She recognized the pattern, she remembered this specific type of sword.

For a small eternity, Asami stared at the shinobi. Infinite hatred filled her heart and clouded her mind. Her Chakra felt her insatiable thirst for revenge. His attire, his posture and his sword were practically the same and almost identical to a group of men she had never truly forgotten despite all these years that had passed. She remembered.

Asami mobilised all her force to keep her boiling emotions and her oscillating Chakra in check. "Lynx, Panther, Hawk, we leave. Naritomo, ready our forces, we will attack in the morning."

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All available Konoha shinobi were put on standby and hid themselves among the nearby trees. Morale was high since word had spread who the girl was that had marched through the camp. They were determined to attack and get vengeance for their fallen comrades.

At the forefront of the column, Asami stood with the rest of the ANBU," Fu, is everyone ready then?"

"Yes, Captain, we are only waiting for your signal", Fu replied.

The darkness of the night retreated and dawn slowly illuminated the land. Asami was slowly breathing in and out. This was the point of no return and from here on she couldn't go back anymore. What she was about to do now would take much of her concentration, and not forgetting it would put a lot of strain on her left Mangekyo. Originally, she planned to use her Jutsu to carpet bomb the entire city and just provide fire support. However, a specific event had caused a slight change of plans, a change she had informed nobody about.

And that was also the main reason why they were now located a few miles away from the designated ground zero, for safety purposes. After all, Asami didn't have the intention of getting caught up in the blast radius.

Asami observed the silent Shimabara enveloped by quiet ignorance, unaware of what was coming. Asami focused her eyes on a small point in the distance, and thus an insignificant sphere appeared hovering above the ground.

The Konoha shinobi couldn't see that the colour of the sphere wasn't the promised bluish-white tone, but an ominous shimmering purple which filled the dark sky, like a sword of Damocles hanging over the city. Asami hadn't forgotten. And more importantly, she wouldn't forgive them. Because she remembered, she remembered very clearly. The sphere was a creation fuelled by Asami's undying hatred, her rage, her ire. This was the final brightly shining legacy of her genuine love for Oka-san, and she saw that it was good.

Asami channeled all the Chakra through the focal point of her Mangekyo and the construct of her retribution grew in size, and grew, and grew endlessly while the density increased with no apparent limit.

The purple sphere disappeared from everyone's view. The sphere collapsed and the core was compressed to just a tiny grain. A tear of blood ran down her face and Asami smiled behind her mask. Her work was done and the raging Chakra waited only to be released. The Chakra waited for her. Asami closed her Mangekyo and what followed was utter silence. Absolute serene silence.

...

...

...

...

...

...

A flash, an enormous flash. The bright light illuminated the sky. And for a moment, the sun herself had set foot on earth and ignited the atmosphere with her radiant glory. However, her blinding beauty was only destined to last for a few seconds.

...

...

...

The shock wave reached the Konoha shinobi shortly after, a white line racing across the ground and the trees. And they still felt the heat of the detonation lingering on their skin.

A roaring thunder followed, but the shinobi ignored the grumbling sound. Instead, they had their eyes fixed on the gigantic column of dust rising into the sky higher than every mountain. Unbothered by its earthly observers, the cloud formed a glowing mushroom.

Asami giggled mischievously marveling at her own creation and tear of blood trickled down her soft cheek. She had done it.

Asami marched forward, approaching the epicentre of the explosion. The infernal column of fire and ash didn't stop. It kept rising and rising. The first step on her path was done. Kumogakure would pay for their actions. They would pay dearly and they would pay their price with blood. Because she would bring judgement on them all.

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No. 012420 to Danzo

Classification: Top Secret "Root"

Urgency: "Root"

Report: Shimabara Rebellion and subject of observation No. 011567

\- rebellion suppressed - Col. Minami Asami No. 011567 - use of new unknown Jutsu - without hand seals - Katon and Raiton technique - power level not determinable - temporary classification S-rank upwards - generally very similar to Bijudama -

\- caused explosion - bright flash - immense blast force - produced "mushroom" cloud - height circa at least 6 km - total destruction of Shimabara - wiped out - entire area flattened - no building standing anymore - barren desert of rubble -

\- enormous heat in the vicinity of ground zero - ground covered in a glassy substance consisting of molten sand -

\- no single survivor found near ground zero - masses of charred corpses - all life exterminated indiscriminately - shadows seemingly burned into the ground all over the city - few survivors on the outskirts - severe third degree burns over the entire body - survival chances non-existent - death expected within a few hours - current estimation - number of civilian casualties circa 40,000 - military casualties unknown - conclusion, subject No. 011567 dangerous - elimination potentially recommended -

A more complete report will be submitted when more exact information is available.

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	26. Arc IV Chapter I

**IV**

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 **Arc IV Chapter I**

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"And this is my little sister. Look, Asami, how cute she is! My little angel", Hisaaki rambled on and on for untold hours. He presented her proudly yet another picture of his little sister. Asami could only blink in confusion, not that he got the hint. They were indeed the first team to pass the second part of the exam, but now they were stuck here in the tower for five whole days and consequently were condemned to do absolutely nothing.

And Asami could never have predicted that she would be stuck with such a family-type-like Hisaaki, or rather with a total siscon and probably secret lolicon to boot.

Before Hisaaki could start a further laudatory eulogy about his wonderful sister, fortunately, her current sensei entered the room and saved Asami from such a tragic fate. She had enough of Hisaaki's cute little sister and his wonderful older brother Tatsuya. In short, she had enough of his entire family.

Hatsu approached the trio and glared at Asami. Had she done something wrong? She was about to say something, but Asami interrupted her successfully, "Finally, can we now leave this shitty tower? Because I can't take this here anymore."

Her sensei glared at her. "No, Asami, we won't be leaving this shitty tower. I am here to take you with me."

"And where are we going, Hatsu-sensei?"

"That is a secret." Hatsu smiled sweetly, clearly concealing something.

"Do you know Hatsu that I don't like secrets? Because in my personal experience, these sorts of secrets often tend to be linked with very unpleasant surprises. Otherwise, there would be no need to keep them secret from us in the first place, Hatsu-sensei." Hatsu suddenly halted and stared at the girl called Asami again. It was only a hunch, but her instincts told her right now that the words 'personal' and 'experience' carried far more weight than they were supposed to. And this little detail only served to further reinforce her growing doubts regarding Asami.

Hatsu had heard from Anko and Ibiki about what her newly recruited Genin had done in detail. While Ibiki had praised her excellent detection abilities, Anko unsurprisingly liked her eccentric streak and the little speech she had made at the entrance of the Forest of Death. The assembled proctors and Jonin found her little show quite entertaining, not to mention amusing. And Guy heartilly endorsed her behaviour, explaining that it was due to her overflowing power of youth.

Hatsu, however, could only wonder where Asami took all of her confidence, or rather where all this cockiness sprang from?

Hatsu grinned." Well, it doesn't matter whether you like secrets or not. You have to follow me nevertheless."

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After Hatsu had abruptly left, her team entered a wide room which strongly resembled an arena in Asami's opinion. In fact, it was probably an arena. They were effectively the final ones to arrive. They joined the already waiting Genin, which didn't go entirely unnoticed. A few Genin looked at them with slight surprise, while others reacted with animosity.

The Hokage cleared his throat and started one of his typical sermons, albeit it was one of the more dramatic speeches in his repertoire.

Bla - third exam - bla - true reason for the Chunin exams - bla - promoting friendship among countries - bla - raise the level of shinobi - bla - comparing the power of the villages - bla – a matter of prestige and influence - bla. In short, he had said nothing that was particularly surprising to her and anyone who had just a small bit of political acumen.

Fortunately, another shinobi took over and ended his silly farce of a motivational lecture. What was this guy's name again? Gekko Hayate, wasn't it?

Hayate introduced them quickly to the concept of these preliminaries. Because who could have expected that more teams would pass the test than was originally planned for? And that they now had to dramatically cut down the number of candidates?

Hayate was met by a sea of blank and disbelieving stares of Genin who wouldn't shut up and stop complaining. Nah, this wasn't right, it wasn't fair. A pink-haired girl who was continuously crying. Sasuke here, Sasuke there, curse mark dangerous, you can't participate, etc., etc., how horribly annoying. Sure, sure, Sasuke was important, but wasn't there anything else important in her life?

Asami rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed. And an annoyed Asami was an exceedingly incalculable factor, not to say a very dangerous Asami, which was a side of her that you didn't want to meet at night in a dark street. Especially, if she was bored. The whole affair was so bothersome and time consuming. She idly toyed with the idea of simply massacring them all … Well, maybe instead she would gently beat up all the Genin and be done with this tedious mission.

No, instead, she had to properly complete this stupid mission, a mission she hated. She seriously had to relieve some of her stress and aggression. What she needed now was a quality punching bag, a human punching bag.

Hayate continued after a Genin called Kabuto dramatically left the room. Asami rolled her eyes. What a showman.

"Well, *cough*, *cough*, does anybody else present wish to follow his example, *cough*, *cough*, and withdraw?"

The obviously sick Jonin observed the assembled Genin. "I think, *cough*we have then, *cough*, *cough*, a problem."

"We originally, *cough*, *cough*, planned to have, *cough*, *cough*, 12 matchups. But with 23 candidates, we have now an uneven number of participants. Which means that one of you will probably get a special wild card, *cough*, *cough*. We will now proceed with the preliminaries, *cough*, *cough*."

Hayate looked at them with a bored expression. "The preliminaries consist of several one versus one fights and the winners will receive as a reward for victory the right to advance into the originally planned final exam. Otherwise, there are no rules at all."

"Huh?" Hayate gained Asami's rapt attention. No rules at all? That was interesting, very interesting. Could she actually kill them all, and she wouldn't be held responsible? Hmmm ...

An emotionless Hayate clarified further," *cough*, *cough*, you will fight until someone dies, collapses, or admits defeat. And please admit defeat right away unless you want to risk your lives unnecessarily."

"However, in the case that I judge that a match is over, *cough*, *cough*, I will intervene. After all, I don't want to needlessly increase the number of dead bodies", Hayate ended his speech with a rather scary tone.

Asami, on the other hand, could only laugh in response to such a feeble attempt to intimidate her and raised her hand. She smiled innocently and harmlessly as ever.

The proctor turned his head together with everyone else. "*cough*, *cough*, yes?"

"Does that mean I will be allowed to kill my opponent without any reservations?" Asami was curious as she would surely use every lacuna in the rules to her fullest advantage.

"From a technical point, yes. *cough*, *cough*, you are indeed allowed to kill, albeit I doubt that would be capable of killing anyone before I decided to intervene. So, it is basically down to your capabilities, …" He thumbed through a list of the present candidates. "Miss Asami." Hayate looked up at her to inspect the girl again. Strange, the name was somehow familiar. Asami, Asami … But why?

"I see. Nevertheless, your total lack of faith in my abilities saddens me, Hayate." Asami crossed her arms in mock disappointment while puffing out her cheeks.

"Are there any further questions? No? Then, *cough*, *cough*, let us begin these preliminaries." Hayate ignored her comment despite her mannerism strongly reminding him of someone Yugao told him about. Yugao had mentioned a girl who had a penchant for wearing black kimonos, and a gigantic ego. A girl who was vainglorious, eccentric, and who was called the ANBU's little princess. And not forgetting, she was excessively strong. Hayate shook his head. What strange thoughts.

Following his command, an electronic signboard appeared. "The board, *cough*, cough*, will display two randomly selected names and in this way we will announce the pairings."

The computer calculated, and calculated and calculated, and gave Asami the impression that the machine was only added to the tournament for the sole purpose of being extremely slow and dramatic. The bored girl yawned while the machine was seemingly trying to compute the entirety of Pi. If nothing happened soon, she would soon fall asleep.

Hayate ended her private agony by finally announcing the result," The first match will be between, *cough*, *cough*, Rock Lee and Minami Asami. You two candidates, please come forward."

"Hmmm, this is ... unexpected. I didn't think I would see action so soon", Asami mumbled, barely audible and half-asleep. But someone standing right behind her heard her nevertheless and misinterpreted her words.

"Don't worry, Asami, I am sure you will win, even though I have never seen you fight seriously yet", Hisaaki encouraged her with a big smile.

Asami waved her hand lazily and yawned. "Thanks for your encouragement, Hisaaki. But, I hope for your and Katsusane's sake that the day will never come when you both get to see me fight seriously."

Asami entrusted a confused Hisaaki with her enigmatic words before she marched forward.

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"Let's go, Lee! It's time for you to shine!" a certain very motivated Jonin-sensei screamed down from the stances," Give it everything you have and you won't lose."

"Yes, Guy-sensei!" Lee gave his sensei a thumbs up and smiled.

However, another nearby Jonin wasn't particularly convinced. After all, he knew a great deal more than Guy did and that the match-up wasn't anywhere near even. Kakashi whispered to his old friend," Are you sure, Guy?"

Guy turned his head," What do you mean, Kakashi?"

"Are you sure that he can stand up going up against her, Guy?"

"Sure?" His bushy brows furrowed. "You can never be sure until you give it all you have! I know he'll defeat anyone who stands against his storm of youth, Kakashi. Lee is strong, stronger than you can imagine and I believe in him."

Kakashi fell silent before finally begrudgingly making a gesture. " I see, but do you think that believing in him will be enough?"

Guy furrowed his eyebrows more rapidly. "Explain."

Kakashi remained silent and made him wait. " Do you see the face of that girl down below?"

Guy nodded, "Yes."

Kakashi stared at Guy, wondering whether he truly understood. "Do you at least know her name, Guy?"

Stroking his chin, Guy considered the question carefully, but it finally dawned on him what Kakashi was getting at. "No, not at all."

Kakashi wasn't particularly surprised and answered with an indifferent sigh. "I expected that coming from you, Guy." He turned his gaze back downwards to study the girl. "After all, nobody attributes any meaning to the name Asami apart from a selected few."

Guy stared at Kakashi suspiciously, frowning. "And you are one of those privileged shinobi, Kakashi, aren't you?" Guy scowled.

...

...

"Perhaps", Kakashi smiled, teasing his old rival.

"Perhaps, what?"

"I shouldn't share this kind of information with you, but her name carries a great deal of weight, more than you might know." Kakashi acted as enigmatic as ever. What was he trying to tell him?

"What are you implying, Kakashi?" Guy gritted his teeth.

Kakashi ignored him and suddenly changed the topic. "Guy, have you ever heard of Konoha's White Death?"

Guy was left confused. "Yes, of course I have, or rather who hasn't heard of her? However, I fail to understand why that even matters."

"Do you perhaps know what Konoha's White Death looks like, Guy?"

Guy grumbled. "Hmph. Not really, all I know about the White Death is that she is an ANBU and girl who cloaks herself exclusively in black. Otherwise, not much is known about her. In fact, I think no one …" Guy blinked while observing the girl below. Guy turned his head like a turret to lock eyes with Kakashi. It couldn't be possible. Everything finally connected.

"Oi! Kakashi." Guy's eyes widened significantly. "By any chance is that girl ..." Guy turned his head woodenly back to his old friend..

Kakashi remained silent and his silence confirmed Guy ́s thoughts. It was her.

"So, is it true?" Guy sweated visibly.

Kakashi nodded subtly. "It is. Asami is strong, incredibly strong. But don't worry, Guy, I doubt that she is here to kill. Lee will survive this."

"I see." Guy sighed in relief. " Thank you, Kakashi."

His friend replied calmly, "No proble …"

"Kakashi-sensei." A familiar bright-haired child tugged on Kakashi's sleeve. "Hey! What do you mean by that. Is that girl really strong?"

Kakashi stiffened slightly and identified the culprit immediately,"Naruto, didn't anyone ever tell you that it isn't particularly nice to eavesdrop on other people's conversations? Exactly , how much have you heard?" This was delicate information, very delicate information. Information which had to be handled carefully.

Naruto ignored his question completely. "Eh? Not as much as I wanted to hear! I only got the part that that weird girl is incredibly strong. I don't see it."

Kakashi sighed interiorly in relief. Everything was fine. What he didn't expect, however, was a typical Naruto. Thank you, Naruto.

"Sensei, Sensei, Sensei, is it all true, Kakashi-sensei, is she really really strong?! Because I don't believe it! I remember her and there's no way she could even beat Sakura-chan!" Naruto crossed his arms and gained the sudden attention of everyone nearby, Sakura, Sasuke, Neji, Asuma, Kurenai, and the rest. This was somewhat problematic.

"Yes, she is strong." Kakashi facepalmed and learned the hard way that you should never trust Naruto with anything which might require any degree of discretion.

A certain pink-haired girl approached with a smile. "NARUTO! Don't be such a nosy idiot!" Sakura turned her attention to Kakashi, consumed by her own curiosity. It wasn't as though she had been listening. Not at all. She was just perceptive.

"How do you know about all that, Kakashi-sensei? As far as I can remember, Asami was always fairly weak back at the academy! She was always the last to be picked in events. Her Jutsu performances were somehow worse than Naruto's." Sakura had just joined the discussion and thus had made everything far more difficult.

Kakashi frowned while Naruto nodded in agreement." Yes, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura is right!"

Kakashi scratched his head. He had to be creative now, particularly creative. " How I know what I do? As a matter of fact, let's just say that I've met Asami once before."

"You ́ve met her once before? And how did you meet with someone like her?" Sakura looked puzzled and interested.

Suddenly. Kurenai shot Kakashi also an expectant look. "Yes, Kakashi, tell us, how do you know Asami-chan? I am quite interested."

Kakashi glared slightly at Kurenai. This had become a surprisingly complicated affair, hadn't it? He sighed quietly. "I met her while on a mission, Kurenai."

She furrowed an eyebrow. "What sort of a mission was it?" Kurenai knew perfectly well that Kakashi once was of ANBU. The biggest questions were how, when, and why Asami became involved with the ANBU?

"Kurenai, why are you so interested?" Kakashi tried to divert, somehow.

Kurenai sighed. I am interested because I was her instructor for some time."

"You were her instructor?" Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly.

"Yes, I was her instructor. It was before she entered the academy. I trained her for two years. So, of course, I would be curious, Kakashi."

"I see." Kakashi nodded, wondering just how much more information she might be hiding. How much did Kurenai know?

"So, it is indeed her." Asuma lit another cigarette and inhaled the vitalizing tobacco smoke. "Kurenai, this is the same Asami you told me once about?"

"Yes, she's the same Asami." Kurenai confirmed.

Asuma expelled a cloud of smoke and laughed. "And I thought it might be just an amusing coincidence, but it seems not. I have a feeling that this match is going to be very … interesting," He glanced at Guy. "Guy's most precious student versus the legendary black princess. Who might win this?"

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"*Cough*, *cough*. Are you both ready?" Hayate's question was answered by a simple nod and thus the match started.

Asami faced her opponent and analysed Lee's capabilities. His Chakra-level wasn't extraordinary, not to say it was mediocre at best. And probably, Lee still couldn't use any Ninjutsu and should be purely limited to some primarily useless Taijutsu. In summary, Lee was easy prey. Asami smirked privately and slightly pitied her enemy for his incredible bad luck to have drawn her for his first match, the poor boy.

Lee didn't know what was ongoing in her mind and readied himself by assuming a combat pose. He was eager, but he didn't realise that he had already lost.

They stared at each other until Lee declared enthusiastically," We are opponents now. So, let us give our best, Asami."

Asami's face didn't betray any particular emotion aside from her amused eyebrow," So, you still remember my name? Admirable. I doubt, however, that you really want me to give my best, Lee."

"Nevertheless, it is an honour to fight you again for the first time since the good old days, Lee. But contrary to our time at the academy, this time I won't lose." Or rather, she wouldn't let him win like back then.

Asami produced eight kunai from her pouch and presented them to the Genin. The irons had a certain seal placed on their grips, a seal that a few Jonin among the crowd recognized on sight. Especially, Kakashi and the Hokage. This couldn't be, right? These seals were … These seals were …

The seals were something Asami had specifically prepared for the Chunin exams as well as a few other nasty surprises in her repertoire.

Lee fixed his attention on Asami and countered politely," And why do you say that?"

"Let's say that I am not the same Asami I was in the past, or rather I am not the same Asami I was back at the academy. Things have changed since then, things have changed significantly. And now, Lee, you don't stand a chance against me with your Taijutsu alone, not to mention your chances of winning are currently non-existent. You will lose no matter what." Asami stared him down, but Lee didn't appear discouraged in the slightest. Instead, the boy remained firm and stood his ground. Her intimidation had failed, but such had to be expected against Lee. He hadn't changed. And as usual, he was too stubborn for his own good. Fortunately, she still had another option.

"Therefore, I will be nice to you today, thus I wholeheartedly recommend you to throw in the towel, Lee. Save yourself all the trouble and humiliation. Forfeit for own good, Lee." Asami smiled suddenly and her beatific face, almost enchanting, was full of kindness, but her smile had no visible effect on Lee.

"Sorry, I can't." Lee refused and didn't accept her benevolent offer to surrender.

Asami acted confused tilting her head cutely. "You can't? Why? Tell me, why aren't you choosing the more sensible path?"

"I can't, I have something to prove to myself and the world." Lee's spirit burned fiercely. He wouldn't budge, that was certain. And Asami accepted, grudgingly.

Asami was the first to act by placing her kunai in various locations across the entire arena. As planned, the kunai struck their designated targets. One for each side, one for each corner of the room. The battlefield was prepared and the stage was set.

Asami evaluated Lee and smirked visibly. "To prove something? I hope that it is worth what will come now. Because I would recommend once again that you withdraw, but it seems that such an endeavour is rather pointless." She had enough.

Asami grabbed a further kunai and started her assault, swift and fast as always. Her speed surprised Lee and the girl nearly blitzed him with the first attack, even though she was in truth going easy on him.

Whipping out a kunai, Lee blocked hers and both kunai were interlocked. Lee was staring right into her black eyes and he could see how his kunai was slowly being forced back by her kunai and her enormous strength.

Since when was Asami so strong? Lee remembered Asami They were together in the same class, even if it was just for a few months during the graduation year. Nevertheless, he could still remember her. The weak girl who never stood out. The girl who never won a single sparring match. The girl who had lost against him. The girl who barely passed the graduation exam thanks only to her mediocre Ninjutsu. So, what had happened? How did Asami grow so much during these mere two years?

Asami smiled deviously. "Is there a problem, Lee? Do you have something on your mind?" Her Kunai was suddenly coated in lightning and was slowly melting through his own kunai. Lee eyes went wide and he realised that he had to widen the distance between them, immediately.

Lee discarded his kunai and rolled backwards while barely avoiding her kunai. Asami didn't hit, but she grazed his leg and the lightning cut easily through his clothes and the beneath skin. Fortunately, it was just a minor flesh wound and not severe. But it was clear by now that her kunai was extremely sharp, and extremely dangerous.

Lee stood up again and kept his eyes on the girl and her kunai. What was she planning next?

Asami let her lightning disappear and smirked. "Not bad. But let's see if you can dodge this?"

Asami threw more kunai and her kunai zipped through the air. Nevertheless, Lee didn't move because he didn't have to move. The kunai would clearly miss him. They weren't intended to hit him. They sailed past his head and the majority of the audience was quite confused. How could one be so inept such as to miss from this distance?

Kakashi and Hiruzen, however, had set their eyes on the kunai and waited. They had both a premonition of what would happen now and they were both right. Asami copied his sensei, Asami directly copied Minato. It was indeed the Flying Thunder God Jutsu and she could use it.

Her kick came from behind and Lee could never have predicted her follow-up attack that was impossible to dodge, especially without any sort of prior knowledge. His speed and reflexes were irrelevant.

Asami hit fast, and hard. And Lee look the full force of her dropkick. Her Taijutsu might not be the strongest under the sun, not to say quite poor as a matter of fact, but that didn't matter as long as you were pouring excessive amounts of Chakra into your attacks like a certain girl. After all, there was nothing that couldn't be solved by more Chakra.

Lee fell and crashed onto the hard concrete ground. Lying there, Asami looked down on him. "See, Lee, I warned you that you stand no chance."

"The match isn't over yet." Lee sprang up and struck her chin with a sudden kick from below, or rather he was supposed to. Instead, he didn't get even get close. Asami just vanished.

"That wasn't nice, Lee, kicking below the belt and trying to hit a girl. I am honestly disappointed." The girl surprised him from behind. She was standing on the other side of the room, right besides one of her kunai and shook her head.

Lee attacked and encountered the same phenomenon. He missed because Asami disappeared before his eyes.

"If you want to score a hit, then you have to be a bit faster, Lee, a lot faster. If you want to have even a moderate chance to land a hit on me, then you have to come at me with everything you have, with all your power, with the intent to kill me. Otherwise, you can forget it, entirely." A smiling Asami waved and greeted him once again from behind. She was fast, extremely fast. But this wasn't any kind of normal movement, this was teleportation. But how? How did she do that … Her kunai. Lee's eyes went wide. The kunai were the key.

Gripping a kunai and a few explosive tags, Lee tried his luck and counterattacked by targeting hhers. But the kunai never reached the target. Asami teleported and intercepted his kunai mid-air with a shuriken. The tag exploded creating a brief cloud of smoke.

"Going for my kunai? That's a canny idea, but don't expect that I will allow you to destroy my property so easily, Lee. As I said before, you have to try harder, far harder." Asami shook her head.

Lee followed her advice and used three kunai, but once again they were intercepted with uncanny precision.

Lee increased the number of kunai to six, to eight, to ten. Nevertheless, the outcome didn't change. His kunai didn't achieve anything. Meanwhile, Asami was merely standing, playing with her shuriken at her leisure.

In the best tradition of the Uchiha, Asami gave him her nest patronising look and smirked. "Lee, do you finally comprehend how inferior you are to me? You are outclassed to a degree that you can barely imagine."

"I hope you realise that I am currently simply fooling around with my shuriken and nothing else." Asami smiled sweetly while twirling a shuriken around her forefinger." But what do you think will happen if I were to genuinely try to harm you, Lee? What do you think will happen? Therefore, don't make this any more difficult than necessary and just give up, Lee."

Lee refused again and his answer was a very, very, very dangerous kunai directed at her head. Her razor-sharp shuriken not only deflected the kunai in a lovely curved parabola, but it also gave Lee a small present in the form of a cut across one of his cheeks. Her shuriken was fast, extremely fast, and dodging it from such a short distance would have been quite challenging even for a Jonin, not to mention a mere Genin.

Visibly stunned, Lee touched the bleeding cut and slowly realised what had happened, what had passed his head just a few seconds ago. The shuriken was stuck into the wall behind him and Asami capitalised on his fatal lack of concentration.

Nevertheless, Lee reacted in time and blocked her kick with his crossed arms. But the amount of force the girl put behind this kick alone was once again astonishing. Despite Asami being the epitome of a frail girl, her kick was remarkably heavy and he could feel the raw kinetic energy concentrated in her heel.

Lee stumbled and her second kick connected to clash against the bone of his elbow. Lee ground his teeth and endured the pain. Ultimately, the third kick broke his defence and he was completely exposed now.

Asami didn't stop and instead accelerated. Her coup de grace was a humble punch aimed at his abdomen and Lee took her final attack head-on. The boy was catapulted backwards by the blunt force. Only the wall stopped his sudden flight crumbling under the sheer force of the impact while the audience followed her actions. The girl struck hard, that much was obvious.

Asami smirked and waited for her victory to be declared, a victory that never came.

Eventually, the dust cleared and to Asami's surprise the boy was still standing, albeit barely. His feet were unsteady and his knees shaking, but Lee stood up again and readied himself for the next round. His endurance was remarkable and the boy was far tougher than expected. After all, who could have predicted that the weakling Lee would make it so far? Well, she didn't.

Asami narrowed her eyes. "It seems that I have slightly underestimated you, Lee. You are better than I gave you initially credit for, not to say you are not bad. And apparently, you are one of these extremely robust types, not to say you are one of the more interesting opponents I've fought in my life."

"Thank you for your compliment, Asami." As usual, the ever-positive Lee smiled slightly and Asami couldn't detect even the smallest sign of hostility.

Asami sighed, "You misunderstand, Lee, this wasn't necessarily a compliment. Do you know what the issue is with stubborn people, people like you? Your stubbornness makes you eventually blind, Lee."

"Blind?"

"Yes, blind. There is a fine, intangible line between being stubborn and senseless fanaticism. And you are currently about to cross this line by choosing to continue fighting me, Lee."

"What I've displayed thus far was merely a small fraction of my power, of what I am truly capable. Don't you understand, Lee, you won't win, you can't win. Because you lack the strength to defeat me, before my might you are nothing, Lee." Asami glared at him with deep black eyes which slowly eroded his spirit. "Therefore, I repeat my offer for the last time. Please, Lee, turn away. A good shinobi should know when to give up instead of marching into their own doom, and this is such a case."

Asami whispered sweetly into his ears, "You said you can't. However, what is your reason for not forfeiting? Is it honour? I tell you there is no shame in admitting defeat when you're up against someone stronger than you."

"No, instead, it proves your better judgement in the face of a difficult situation. Is the fear of being called weak? No, you are by no means weak if you forfeit now, and you are definitely not a coward, Lee. Regardless of what others might say, I won't judge you. On the contrary, you have already shown that you are quite capable for a Genin by the mere fact that you are still standing."

"So, give up, Lee. Don't make it harder than necessary." A smiling Asami offered him her hand and the boy had only to accept.

Asami could see it in his eyes, Lee was wavering and he was visibly unsure of what to do, she almost convinced him. Lee hesitated," I … I … I …"

"Hey, Bushy Brows, don't even think about giving up!" A loud voice interrupted them both and they immediately realised who the fucking idiot on the side-lines was. Grinding her teeth, Asami turned her head and as expected it was Naruto.

The boy continued screaming from the stances. "Didn't you say that you would work harder than anyone else? That you would never give up? That is your gift, that's your Nindo!"

Asami glared angrily at Naruto for his unwanted interference. Naruto gave Lee back his courage and Lee's determination completely returned. "Asami, Naruto is right, I can't. You might be stronger than me, more talented, more gifted, Asami, and I might be unable to defeat you. But I will never give up, that is my Nindo."

All kindness vanished from her face and Asami's eyes glimmered in an unnoticeable shade of dangerous red. She had tried to be merciful, but her patience had reached an end and Lee's fate was sealed. "Your Nindo? Your Nindo? Well, it is unlikely, however, that your Nindo will protect you in this case. I will show you where your Nindo truly ends, my friend."

"I hope you have a good heat resistance, Lee, because you will need it." Breathing in, Asami formed a hand seal and prepared her Jutsu, a classic among Katon users, and especially among the Uchiha. Her lips released a stream of fire and a giant fireball bathed the room in a sea of wild flames and scorching heat. Asami was happy with her creation and increased the heat further until you felt the very air burning.

Asami closed her lips and her lovely fireball went out in a blaze of glory. The fireball exploded and the arena trembled.

Surprisingly, Lee escaped her wrathful flames relatively unscathed and dodged her attack with only a few scorch marks, otherwise he would have been roasted and she could now serve fried Genin. Lee was definitely fast, faster than any Genin was supposed to be, which was horribly annoying.

Panting heavily, Lee stared at the girl, Asami countered with a suave smile. "Just for your information, my offer still stands."

Lee remained silent, however, and started unravelling the bandages around his legs. The bandages revealed a pair of … weights and he removed them. What was that supposed to achieve? These were just a pair of weights. Asami furrowed her amused eyebrow, "Seriously, a pair of weights? Do you think that will change anything, Lee?"

"I am sorry, Guy-sensei, but I have to take them off." Lee mumbled silently and dropped the weights. The metal bars fell and crashed onto the ground with a slightly unexpected force. Asami stumbled. What the fuck was that?

Lee attacked directly from point blank, and he was fast, incredibly fast. And it was one of the few times in her life that she was forced to actually block a strike instead of dodging it. Reaction time was short and her immediate options were limited. His kick connected and Asami flinched.

Lee retreated and attacked once again, but this time she was better prepared, this time he paid dearly for his arrogance. There was a good reason why Taijutsu was in her opinion a worthless form of art and you didn't bring Taijutsu to a knife fight. Asami smirked and unsheathed yet another concealed kunai, coating it with her Raiton.

The girl deflected his kick with her kunai and his leg met a stream of heated plasma. The kunai burned and scorched his flesh in agonising pain left him vulnerable to a further counterattack. His attack had failed and Lee had overextended himself.

Grabbing his body, Asami kicked Lee straight in his nuts and rammed her knee with all of her force in his unprotected stomach afterwards one time, a second time, and a third time to be sure. That should have finally downed the boy for good, otherwise she would have to be even nastier.

Lee fell and Asami sighed in relief. Finally, it was over. However, that wasn't the case. Recuperating almost immediately, Lee was standing again and Asami was left dumbfounded. The boy simply refused to go down regardless of how badly he was beaten.

Lee continued his assault, but his speed had significantly decreased and his movements were visibly sloppier with every second passing. Asami easily sidestepped his attacks. Lee was slowly reaching the end of his rope.

The mischievous girl formed a seal and her breath saturated the room with wonderful fire. Unwilling to be toasted, Lee was driven back right into one of the room's corners, which was exactly where she wanted him to be.

Appearing behind him, Asami threw three kunai which were coated with her lighting, three kunai tagged with a mark apiece, three possible locations she could strike from simultaneously. Lee could dodge them, but he couldn't escape her trap.

Asami moved out, creating a Rasengan in her hand. In short, nothing particularly dangerous. The girl selected a kunai and struck from above with her Rasengan arcing downwards. Asami smirked in a satisfied manner because she knew that she had won, this match was over.

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And she would have won if Lee hadn't suddenly increased his speed. Something unexpected had happened and the sudden influx of extra speed let him escape her lighting fast Rasengan, but not without a price. Her Rasengan hit the ground and shredded through the concrete as though it was paper. Nevertheless, she had missed him.

A furious Asami glared at Lee. Once again, he had escaped his fate, and that was unacceptable. Why was it so fucking difficult to beat down this stupid boy no matter how hard she tried? Why was it so incredibly difficult to subdue a single measly Genin without the barest understanding of Ninjutsu and was armed solely with Taijutsu? She was a fucking ANBU, an Uchiha, and not forgetting Asami. This match had become a matter of honour, and she would win and finish this directly. May someone have mercy on Lee, because she wouldn't anymore.

Breathing heavily, Lee touched his bleeding wound. He may have avoided the worst, but his left flank was unfortunately grazed by her Rasengan. The cloud of dust finally lifted and Lee was confronted by a pair unflinching eyes that had lost any sign of friendliness. "I admit that was a neat little trick, but don't think it will work on me a second time."

Lee merely nodded and kept an eye on the girl. She was right, using the first gate wouldn't work a second time like everything else.

Asami had no bruise, no scratch, not cut, nothing. While she had the speed, the precision, the strength, he was incapable of even landing a single hit on the little princess. Her entire existence seemed untouchable, unbeatable, invincible by human standards. So, what could he do against her? What could he do against an opponent such as she?

The answer was obvious, he had to give everything he had, everything that was needed, everything that was required. And Lee was ready to give everything.

Asami eyed Lee expectantly. He was planning something, but what? Well, in the end, it didn't matter.

She produced two kunai from the sleeves of her kimono and an electric current sheathed their blade in a stream of vibrating plasma. This time, her attack would strike true. Asami started her assault and charged, blitzing across the room with unprecedented speed while Lee appeared to prepare something big.

Unleashed blue Chakra circled around Lee and his body changed colour, but Asami didn't care about this final futile ploy . It was too little, too late.

"The third gate, the Gate of Life, open…" Lee felt how a pair of kunai was struck through his left and right femur evaporating nerves, tendons, muscles and bone alike. Lee cried out in pain and was punished by a brutal roundhouse kick sending him flying across the room. It was over, Lee was defeated.

His legs couldn't move anymore, nevertheless Lee desperately struggled to stand again. Lee tried, and tried, and tried with all of his remaining force, but he was doomed to fail. His stubbornness was a powerful weapon, but unfortunately it was also the reason for his downfall. Asami pulled out a final kunai and marched forward after having witnessed enough this senseless tragedy.

Asami ordered the proctor," Hayate, this match ends now. Declare the victor and finally stop this fight. I think everyone has seen enough."

Hayate stared calmly at the girl," *Cough*, *cough*, I can't. The participant is obviously not completely incapacitated yet, *cough*, *cough*, and has no intention to withdraw…"

Her kunai flew right past his head and a firm commanding voice supported her kunai," You seem to misunderstand, Hayate, my words weren't a mere suggestion. I mean what I say, the match stops immediately, right here, and right now. I have had enough of this farce."

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	27. Arc IV Chapter II

**IV**

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 **Arc IV Chapter II**

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Hayate's eyes switched between the poor boy and a for her age frighteningly persuasive girl. And after a short inner deliberation, he came to a final decision. He wasn't stupid and he didn't need a second affirmative kunai to get the message. The kunai was well placed enough and missed him only narrowly.

And furthermore, she was right, the match was over or would be over soon and it wasn't necessary to prolong Lee's agony. The boy required obviously some medical attention, and quickly if possible.

Hayate cleared his throat and declared in his typical monotony," Ahem, *cough*, the winner of the match is…"

"No, aargh, I haven't lost. Aargh, the match isn't over yet, aargh", both Asami and Hayate were interrupted by a weak and almost inaudible voice. Beneath the surface, however, shimmered the unbroken iron will of a Genin not ready to bend, not willing to give up at any cost. The duo turned their heads and were surprised by a heavily and painfully breathing Lee.

The girl's eyes went wide. Lee was standing unsteadily and about to break down any second. But nevertheless, he was standing with the force of sheer willpower alone. Lee was supposed to be permanently disabled by her last attack. However, that wasn't the case. Instead, he kept fighting and he didn't even remotely think about giving up. But how? How he was able to achieve that was beyond her knowledge. Shouldn't it have been physically impossible to do what he was currently doing? Yes, it should. She had pierced his legs with lightning. But nevertheless, Lee was still standing and he was getting increasingly more on her nerves.

Asami clenched her fist. Damn shinobi and their annoying superhuman resilience. You could practically never be sure whether they were dead for good or were merely pretending only to rise again after a few minutes. In the end, you had always to plunge something preferentially sharp into the corpse just to be sure. Unfortunately, she didn't have her beloved sword at the moment and she couldn't simply kill Lee. That would have been far too easy.

Asami smiled and inspected Lee again. He was the very definition of combat ineffective. He may be technically correct, the match was still going on. Lee was neither unconscious, nor had he forfeited yet.

However, how he was supposed to continue fighting, not to mention moving was another question altogether. Lee could only barely stand and she had effectively robbed him of his priced mobility. After all, running was relatively difficult with two kunai struck through your legs and Lee shouldn't be able to get much further.

Not forgetting, she didn't plan on being on the receiving end of a potentially very, very, very lethal Taijutsu if avoidable. She never gave her enemy time to prepare regardless of the situation. And more importantly, she didn't want her precious clothes to be damaged.

In short, Asami had completely destroyed and outmanoeuvred Lee by all standards, which had to be expected considering the enormous discrepancy in ability. Lee was surprisingly resistant, not to say disproportionately strong, but even that couldn't save him. He had lost the moment he set a foot into the arena.

Nevertheless, Lee wouldn't see reason. He refused to accept his defeat and. He refused continually, grasping at his last delusional rays of hope until the very bitter end. She hadn't won yet and he hadn't lost so far. The match was dragging on. Had she really to kill Lee? A Genin, a problem. No Genin, no problem. A single kunai was all she needed, a single kunai which couldn't be evaded in his current condition. Killing him? Was that the best solution?

Asami observed Hayate and his bored expression. The match was technically still going on and it was true that within this arena she could do whatever she wanted without any repercussions.

She smiled and approached Lee before the poor boy could do anything stupid. She stopped right in front of him shaking her head, "No, Lee, the match is over, my friend."

Asami tipped his forehead playfully and she made Lee fall on the hard ground of reality. A tiny bit of force was sufficient to the task and his weak body collapsed without offering any further resistance.

Asami looked down on him from above. Her infinite black orbs practically suffocated any form of opposition and consumed any remaining strength he had. Her beautiful black eyes stared at him and his mind fell piece by piece, deeper and deeper into a dark abyss of unconsciousness. A soft inviting melody was whispering in his ears and induced him to sleep. Dark shadows circling around him and tried to devour him, to make him a part of their unintelligible black mass. But he didn't feel any sense of danger, any sense of discomfort. Instead, a pleasant feeling of sleepiness overcame him. He was tired, his body was tired and he had fought enough.

Asami leaned down and her hands grabbed the grips of her two kunai. "I am merely here to take back what is mine, but it shouldn't hurt too much, Lee."

The smiling girl removed the kunai in a single swift movement, but he didn't feel any pain. He felt nothing and all the pain in his body had just disappeared. And slowly, the world spun around him and then turned black.

Asami ignored Lee, returning to her team, but he stopped a moment to speak," Lee, let me give you a last advice for you. You certainly have the potential to become a great shinobi based on your raw fighting power. But you are currently ignorant and I sincerely hope that this defeat will be a lesson for you."

"Remember my words, Lee, because your future enemies won't know neither mercy nor will they ever hesitated. The one who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day. But the one who is slain in battle will never rise again, Lee."

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Asami leisurely walked up the stairs. She had all the time in the world after her victory while a peacefully sleeping Lee was hastily transported away by a few helpful medics. Apparently, her Genjutsu had worked.

The next pairing was announced, Uchiha Sasuke vs a nobody. Asami passed her fellow Uchiha. As usual, Sasuke had a cold and dispassionate aura and ignored her. Nevertheless, she gifted him with one of her encouraging smiles.

All things considered, she was still rooting for the Uchiha home team. After all, Uchiha had to stick together and blood was supposedly thicker than water, or something similar. Sasuke briefly faltered before continuing on his way, which amused her. Beneath his hard shell, he was still the same as ever.

Eventually, Asami reached her waiting team and sensei. Hisaaki looked at her in a completely new light, not to say he marvelled at her while Hatsu eyed her suspiciously.

Hisaaki wildly gesticulated. "I suspected that you weren't weak, Asami. But why the fuck didn't you tell us how insanely strong you are? You are simply nothing short of amazing. I think you're capable of easily turning everyone in this entire room into trash."

Asami smiled. "Who knows. Depending on the day, my luck, and my mood, maybe. Maybe not."

"And what was that blue spheric Jutsu? And not forgetting, what was that giant fireball? And how did you do that with lightning imbued kunai? And could you please teach me the Jutsu you used, your teleport thingy?" Hisaaki begged her and nearly knelt in front of his Asami-hime.

"Well, I could, Hisaaki." Asami giggled. "But unfortunately, none of these Jutsu are particularly easy to perform unless you possess a masterful Chakra control and huge reserves. Sadly, I have to disappoint you, you neither have the control, nor my beloved Raiton. Therefore, I can do very little to help you at the moment, Hisaaki."

Hisaaki fell silent and sighed in disappointment. "I understand."

"Don't worry, you still have your Katon and that should be useful enough." Asami remunerated him with an encouraging smile.

Hisaaki looked up. "Yes, you are right ... Wait a moment, how do you know that I can use Katon?"

"Well, my instincts told me that you probably have the use of Katon like the majority of Konoha shinobi, am I right?" Hatsu narrowed her eyes even more.

The next match finally started and Asami had a suitable excuse to end this discussion. Furthermore, she was interested in how much Sasuke had improved since their last encounter. What did her fellow Uchiha achieve in all these years? As far as she remembered, he wasn't shabby skill-wise.

Hatsu stood next to her and leaned closer as inconspicuous as possible. But she didn't follow the fight down below. Instead, she whispered three simple words in Asami's ears," Who are you?"

The inquisitive nuance within her voice was quite pronounced and Asami ignored her question initially. "You're asking who I am? Isn't that a rather difficult question to ask a young girl like myself, Sensei? Some people might answer that you are who you are, but in my personal experience complete understanding of yourself can never be truly achieved."

"So, who am I? Well, I can give you no satisfying answer, Sensei, because there aren't any. I could be one, no one, a hundred thousand people, who knows. However, I think you are asking for something else, Sensei, aren't you?" The girl was toying with her and Hatsu clenched her fists. She was slowly but surely getting on her nerves.

Asami observed the match that didn't seem to be going particularly well for Sasuke. He was pressed against the floor by a Chakra absorbing guy pinning him down. She had honestly expected more from an Uchiha like him. Sasuke's current level was underwhelming and Asami couldn't help but compare him continuously with his older brother, Itachi.

Hatsu maintained her outward calm and continued," You are no normal Genin, Asami, if that is even your true name."

Asami had to chuckle. "I can guarantee you, Sensei, that as far as I can remember Asami has indeed been my birth-given name and a name that I will always carry with pride. But why do you think that I am certainly no normal Genin, Sensei? Don't you see my forehead protector and haven't you read my memo? I am the most Genin Kunoichi who had ever Genined around Konoha in the whole history of Genin."

So someone had finally caught her, which wasn't particularly surprising per se. Asami was only wondering what exactly gave her away. The Rasengan, her teleportation, her level of Taijutsu, or was it perhaps her shuriken skills?

"I didn't say you weren't a Genin. I said you weren't a normal Genin."

"Sensei, what is a normal Genin, please tell me? Is normal Genin some sort of newly introduced classification or what?" Asami laughed.

Hatsu ground her teeth. "You know what I mean, Asami. I have seen your memo and all of your documents. I know your age, your height, your eye colour, your background which indicates that you have been inactive for the last two years. But there was not a word written in regards to your strength, your abilities, nor your Jutsu. On paper you indeed appear like a normal Kunoichi, but you can't fool me. Everyone saw you fight down there, Asami, and you are certainly not just a simple Genin, Asami."

"Your movements were far too polished, too precise, too seemingly perfect for a Kunoichi with your apparent past. You easily have attained the Jonin standard and you are apparently capable of using a Jutsu which even the most talented shinobi wouldn't dare to touch because of its difficulty."

"The gap between you and Lee wasn't simply a matter of raw strength. What I witnessed was primarily an unbridgeable gap between your skill-levels. You were years ahead of him and displayed a level of skill that the majority of Konoha shinobi can only dream of possessing. Therefore, I ask you once again, who are you, Asami?"

"Hmm, these are a lot of interesting points you bring up, Sensei, and I will reward you with a smidge of information." Hatsu knew too much already to deceive her with a simple lie.

Asami smiled sweetly. "Sensei, remember who officially chose to assign to this team. The Hokage, himself. Do you think it's a simple coincidence? No, it's not. I am more or less on par with any Jonin skill-wise, but I am not one. So now, let's us put one and one together, Sensei, which kind of ninja are directly handpicked by the Hokage for their missions, operate in the dark, are renowned for their skill and are widely considered the best shinobi a hidden village has to offer?"

Hatsu fell silent and then suddenly started laughing. "To think I had an ANBU all this time right under my nose and had no idea. You are one of them, Asami, aren't you? No wonder you are so incredibly strong."

"Well, I never stated that I am an ANBU. This is just a conclusion on your part, albeit one of the more plausible explanations, Sensei. And I hope that I can place my trust in you and your capacity for secrecy regarding this matter, Sensei." The Kunoichi smiled like a little sunshine. The match ended and Sasuke was escorted away by Kakashi. He had won, but the price was high. Nevertheless, something else caught her attention, a little seemingly unimportant detail. Asami was a careful observer and she felt that a certain person had abruptly left the room and was following Kakashi. A person whose Chakra signature Asami recognized. He could disguise himself as much as he wanted, but his Chakra signature betrayed him nevertheless. The man who was the official Jonin sensei of the three Oto-nin. A bit suspicious, wasn't it? The man required a bit of active observation.

Hatsu sighed in exasperation. "Yes, yes, I already understand … The ANBU and their precious annoying secrecy. You don't have to threaten me, though."

"You misunderstand, Sensei, I never tried to threaten you. Consider my words instead a well-intended reminder among friends." Asami fixed her eyes on the signboard. Two new names appeared that she knew, Hisaaki and Katsusane. They were selected to fight against each other, which was surprising, but it was not exactly unlikely. Sadly, she had to attend a certain other event which required her immediate and undivided attention.

Asami turned her head. "I wish you good luck then, Hissaki, Katsusane. Unfortunately, I have a thing or two to do and have to leave for a short time."

Hisaaki blinked. "What? Why?"

"Let's say that it's a small private secret." Asami sealed her lips with a single finger.

Hisaaki was confused. "A secret?"

"Yes, and a very important one. So, bye bye then and see you all later. I promise that I will return shortly." Asami waved and left with a sudden flicker.

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Asami was hiding in the shadows, albeit she wasn't exactly the stealthiest infiltrator the world had ever seen. Nevertheless, tried her best and one of the many stone columns in the room provided her with the necessary cover. Asami looked around and watched a sealing ceremony with great interest. Obviously, she was interested purely for academic reasons.

Fuinjutsu wasn't among her particularly stronger points and the fact that her Flying Thunder Seals actually worked as intended could be considered a miracle. After all, she still didn't completely understand her own formula and she relied mostly on instinct.

In fact, she strongly suspected the intent behind the Jutsu was far more important than hand seals and all the other senseless garbage was pure formality anyway.

Aside from that, Fuinjutsu was rather useless on the actual battlefield. Too cumbersome, too inflexible, too slow, too specialised like Genjutsu. In short, everything a good reliable weapon system shouldn't be. Nevertheless, Asami was as usual curious and observed the sealing procedure from afar. The red letters were seemingly moving and enclosed the curse mark. Interesting.

Kakashi's work was done and the mark was sealed. "The next time that curse tries to become active, the seal should contain the power of the curse mark. However, you should never forget that the seal relies on the strength of your will and in the case your will weakens, then the seal will lose its power."

Asami nodded. This supported her theory only further that all the fancy ceremonial writing, arrays, etc. were indeed superfluous. In the end, Fuinjutsu primarily depended on the malleable will of the user. Sasuke fell over and was embraced by the inviting hard ground.

Kakashi mused, "It seems that he needs some time to rest."

"So you can even use Fuinjutsu. You have grown, Kakashi, haven't you?" Her target revealed himself and Asami drew her sword while eavesdropping. Because she had the reliable premonition that this wouldn't end peacefully. This would quickly turn hot. Fortunately, violence and destruction were her speciality and her blood was already excited. Asami caressed and cherished her polished steel with her soft hand. How she had missed her trusted companion. Yes, she was sure her sword had missed her too, didn't it?

"You." Kakashi paled and his eyes grew wide. He was frightened, nervous ... Was her target really that strong?

"Long time no see, Kakashi." The man smirked evilly and chuckled amused.

"Orochimaru." Kakashi was visibly scared while Asami tilted her head. The name Orochimaru was somehow familiar, wasn't it? Was he famous or perhaps a shinobi from her bingo book? But in the end, she didn't care particularly. Before her and her blade everyone was equal. Before her might everyone was dead. Whether they were a simple Genin or a legendary Sannin, you would die just the same way.

"Sannin, Sannin, Sannin." Asami repeated the title. Her synapses were telling her that the word was somehow important, but why? Well, a certain clueless girl had no idea.

While Asami was obsessively trying to solve this enigma which required the majority of her attention and had the highest priority at the moment, Orochimaru grinned. "I am sorry, but I have no business with you, Kakashi. But I am here for the precious boy behind you."

"Why are you after Sasuke?" Orochimaru was after Sasuke, which was nice to know, but ultimately quite irrelevant.

"Isn't it wonderful to possess this amazing power. You already have it, Kakashi, the Sharingan. And I want it too, the Sharingan, the culmination of true power and the symbol of the Uchiha clan." Orochimaru chuckled and Asami could only second his opinion. He was right, they were indeed highly useful, even when they were sometimes tricky to use and were constantly trying, *cough* Mangekyo *cough*, to blind you, which was a bit problematic, but not impossible to circumvent.

Moreover, Asami had the feeling that she was slowly growing closer to her solution. She was convinced that the name was somehow connected to miso soup.

Orochimaru closed in and Kakashi began sweating. But he stood his ground and produced a chirping lightning technique in his hand. "Don't come any closer to Sasuke. Even if you are one of the legendary Sannin, I will fight and kill you, Orochimaru."

Asami thanked Kakashi and interiorly facepalmed. Exactly, Orochimaru was one of three Sannin. How could she have overlooked such an important detail?

"Hehehehe, ahahahahahahaha." Orochimaru broke out in laughter and Asami really wanted to commend him on his high quality evil laughter. Respectable.

"What's so funny?" Kakashi met his stare and resisted.

"You want to kill me, you want to kill me, Kakashi. Why don't you try …", Orochimaru stopped. He heard something, they heard something. The loud footsteps of another person were echoing through the empty hall which produced a slow cadence. Someone had found them and was approaching them, but who? Orochimaru turned his head and inspected the mysterious newcomer. " It seems a new guest has arrived, Kakashi."

The unknown guest halted and a girlish giggling filled the air, it wasn't a normal giggle. Instead, it was deeply sinister, ominous and coated with an inherent sense of danger. "A new guest? Yes, maybe, but I have not come with any friendly intentions, Orochimaru." A sword shimmered in the dark and Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. This was an open provocation.

He smirked. "Aren't these awfully big words coming from someone so young? Do you even realise with whom you are speaking?"

Kakashi recognized the voice and his eyes grew wide yet again. It was her. Why was she here? Was she mad?

A glowing sheathe of lightning enveloped the sword and enlightened the surrounding darkness with pure white. Asami gripped her blade tightly and her blood boiled. "That might be true, but it is equally true that you, Orochimaru, don't comprehend either whom precisely you are speaking with."

The shimmering lightning illuminated the room to reveal a lovely girl clad in black. Asami smiled happily and tilted her head. "And I've a bit of personal advice for you, Orochimaru, you should always be careful of what you wish for. Sometimes your wishes might come true. Because I would be glad to accept your offer and try my luck in killing you. The only question I have for you is how you want your miserable life to end. Do you prefer being cut in half or perhaps something along the lines of a classical decapitation, legendary Sannin."

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	28. Arc IV Chapter III

**IV**

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 **Arc IV Chapter III**

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Orochimaru smirked in sudden recognition, "Ah, you're the interesting girl from before."

The legendary Sannin finished his little speech once again with his typical slow sinister chuckle which annoyed Asami greatly. Especially, all the dramatic pauses he constantly used and that it took Orochimaru ages to get to the point.

Nevertheless, Asami didn't interrupt an enemy when he was making a mistake. Time wasn't against her and the glimmering steel in her hand was only waiting for the ideal opportunity to draw first blood.

A pair of slitted eyes evaluated her carefully and judged her. "I have to congratulate you on your victory, Asami-chan, which was quite impressive. I honestly didn't expect that Konoha had such a promising young Kunoichi among the participants, such a truly rare and precious gem. Apparently, life is full of surprises, isn't it, Asami-chan? Unfortunately, you lack something that I consider important."

An insatiable possessiveness filled his words, an inexplicable carnal desire. Orochimaru licked his lips. He wanted her, her body, her everything and Asami began to doubt his mental stability. What the fuck was wrong with this wannabe snake?

A sense of danger lingered in the air which would have paralyzed any lesser shinobi, but not Asami. Asami remained unfazed and Orochimaru started to get significantly on her nerves, as if he could seriously threaten her in the slightest. Did he plan to frighten her with his evil grin, or what? Ridiculous, wasn't it? She would crush him like a bug under her might.

Asami tilted her head, gigling. "And what would that be, Orochimaru? What do I lack that our Uchiha doesn't? The Sharingan perhaps?"

Orochimaru fell silent for a brief moment and answered with an ambiguous smile," I see that you have been naughty. Eavesdropping is a nasty habit." He softly applauded her. "How very impolite it was of you, dear Asami-chan."

Asami smiled back. "I doubt that I require your advice, Orochimaru about etiquette nor politeness."

"True, true." Orochimaru smirked. "Although I enjoy exchanging pleasantries with both of you, my time is sadly limited. Therefore, I have to take my leave now, Asami dear and Kakashi." The Sannin stared for a last time at Sasuke before he left. He slowly walked away and passed Asami, entirely unperturbed by her presence.

He nearly reached the exit, but his path was blocked by a slightly annoyed girl and her sword. The asshole dared to ignore her and tried to walk past her within her reach. That was bold, incredibly so. Who did Orochimaru think that he could ignore her? He was a legendary Sannin, a shinobi feared across the lands, a force to be reckoned with, but that didn't matter. Orochimaru could be the second coming of the Sage of the Six Paths himself and she wouldn't particularly care.

Orochimaru set his eyes on his new opponent, an unmoving and unyielding wall called Asami. He wouldn't get past her quite so easily. "Are you stupid, girl? Do you want to die? It might just be that I am in a good mood right now, but I'll tell you this kindly. Get out of my way or I will destroy you." Gone was any false friendliness from his face and his dark aura spread promising death.

Asami narrowed her eyes dangerously and reciprocated his stare. Orochimaru vastly overestimated himself and he would pay the price.

Tension rose and the time when titans would clash drew closer. Asami readied her shining blade and her lightning catalysed the vengeful light of the stars in her hand.

Asami smiled. "Stupid you say? You actually dare to call me stupid? You who should better watch your words and know your place, Orochimaru. You who has walked straight into the lion's den. You are alone here, Orochimaru, alone in hostile territory without any support whatsoever."

"The Hokage, a bunch of ANBU guards, an insufferable Taijutsu fanatic and a famed Sharingan user are all right around the corner, mere seconds away, and they are ready to bring you down with all their power. And whom have you, Orochimaru? Because I don't see anybody." Asami opened her arms and asked for an answer that never came. Asami smiled and mobilised her Chakra while the Sannin was distracted by her little speech. Orochimaru's defence crumbled and that was the moment she waited for. The Sannin was exposed while her Chakra was building up within her body.

Asami tilted her head and smiled. "Every minute you spent here among us, your chances of being detected increased. I have found you. So, why shouldn't anybody else have discovered you too? A stray Chunin patrolling the corridors, a medic searching for your precious Uchiha. And if you try to force your way out, then don't forget that even the slightest sound of fighting, will automatically alert a force consisting of the most elite Konoha shinobi I can think of. So tell me, Orochimaru, how long do think it will take for them to arrive if we make a racket now."

"Orochimaru, you are treading on thin ice." Her black eyes betrayed her thoughts and were accompanied by a contemptuous stare. Asami looked down on him and she hardly considered him someone worthy of being called her equal. Orochimaru was inferior and he shouldn't forget it.

"Therefore, tell me once again, esteemed Sannin, who exactly is the stupid one between the two of us? Because your clock is running down and I can assure you that you, Orochimaru, will pay the price for your arrogance."

And as predicted, Orochimaru's sardonic smirk faltered together with his attention. Her word struck a nerve and there was the desired breach in his defence. A few seconds were everything she needed to close the distance. Only a few metres separated him from her and that wouldn't save him.

Asami attacked, accelerating in a blink of an eye. A classical frontal assault from point blank was her primary choice. She charged at top speed and poured as much as possible into her initial and final attack. It was enough to gouge out a nice big hole in his chest and would make him regret he had ever met her.

Her brilliant lightning coated her blade with pure and white plasma while the rest of her luminous Raiton enveloped her body like a protective armour which shielded her advance. It was over.

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Orochimaru never saw the strike coming, or rather he saw her, but he didn't have the time to react. After all, blitzing a shinobi of his calibre was frankly even beyond Asami's humble abilities. His eyes widened and he was confronted by a blinding flash and an approaching beautifully sharp blade.

It would have been a truly anticlimactic and inglorious end for the hated nemesis of Konoha if he hadn't evaded. Orochimaru barely dodged her strike , but he did. Asami didn't feel any resistance and she shot right past him. She had missed from point blank and she didn't like that.

Asami crashed smoothly through the eight consecutive stone columns in her way before she finally slowed. The brittle granite offered no real resistance to her cutting and it yielded. The pillars were simply blown apart by her sheer kinetic force and her lightning attributed chakra, and what remained of them was a series of gaping holes and a liquefied mass of silicate and ruptured stone.

Asami forced an abrupt halt by thrusting her sword downwards and made her blade bite into the hard ground. Unsurprisingly, it worked and she decelerated. Nevertheless, she still slid across the hall and nearly stumbled over her own feet.

Shortly after, the massive columns collapsed under their own weight throwing up a dust cloud which darkened the room.

"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*", Asami waved her hands to disperse the surrounding particles. Her head was spinning and she suffered from some slight disorientation.

Asami came to the conclusion that her attack was a bit too fast and too uncontrollable. Furthermore, the results were honestly disappointing. She had hoped for more aside from demolishing columns and clearing obstacles. Next time she would just use a lot of explosives and her Katon to solve problems like this. Yes, there was no problem that couldn't be solved with explosives.

After vowing to never use such a blitz attack again, the dust cloud finally cleared and she got a clear sight of what had happened. Asami smiled and congratulated herself.

Apparently, her attack wasn't a complete failure and she had succeeded. She had got Orochimaru. Asami giggled uncontrollably and enjoyed her triumph while Kakashi observed the surreal scene. Orochimaru was gone, dead. The girl had killed him just like that.

Asami stepped forward and picked up a severed left hand which was lying on the ground. The girl inspected the charred hand. She marvelled at her beautifully macabre work. Orochimaru was now a smouldering corpse roasted alive by her lightning.

The sweet smell of victory and burned human flesh filled her nose giving her a certain sense of satisfaction.

Nevertheless, she was wondering what exactly killed him. His wounds were severe, but they shouldn't be immediately lethal. Orochimaru was supposed to barely cling to his miserable life while slowly bleeding to death under excruciating pain. Instead, he died immediately and without a fight. Strange, strange indeed.

Her attack wasn't a direct hit. She had narrowly missed his abdomen because her target moved and didn't do her the favour of being speared by a lovely plasma lance. Instead, her lightning only claimed his whole left arm and shoulder. They were evaporated by the heat and his entire left flank of his body was effectively carbonized.

" So easily the once mighty Orochimaru has fallen. Bragging until the last breath. In the end, however, Konoha's legendary Sannin was all bark and no bite and was defeated by a little girl.", Asami laughed and brought her sword down to cut off his head., "How utterly disappointing."

Asam sheathed her blade and kicked his skull across the wide hall while his body still leaked interestingly minuscule traces of treacherous Chakra. Orochimaru was supposed to be dead. Nevertheless, she could feel his Chakra signature, which was highly suspicious. It was a weak signature, but it was still there.

Asami narrowed her eyes and murmured, "What an idiot." Her job here was done and she could worry later about such minor details.

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Armed with a proud smile of victory, Asami strolled towards her nearby audience. She had succeeded in killing Orochimaru, which wasn't exactly a small feat. Therefore, applause, applause. After all, she deserved a bit of recognition.

Asami approached Kakashi and his famously bored expression which made reading his face remarkably difficult, not to say impossible considering that the majority of his face was concealed by his mask. In short, Kakashi was a hard nut to crack and it was difficult to tell what he was thinking beneath his mask. Kakashi maintained his guard and remained suspicious of her. Asami smiled, she was the girl who had single handedly dispatched one of the village's biggest threats to the village right before his eyes. Of course, he was suspicious of her and he kept watching her.

Asami suddenly halted and they exchanged cold observant stares with the abundant inherent friendliness that ANBU as well as ex-ANBU personnel were famous for. They were engaged in a merciless staring contest and both sides were hell bent on winning no matter what. The rules were simple, who first blinked lost.

Neither a taciturn Kakashi nor an impatient Asami were ready to back down and thus the slightly awkward silence continued while in the background a certain Uchiha slowly regained his consciousness. A persevering boy, wasn't he? The situation continued until Asami finally cleared her throat and she decided to end this farce. "Ahem, I think some introductions are in order. It's a pleasure to meet you again after all this time, Kakashi, albeit the circumstances could be better."

Asami persisted with her friendly smile and Kakashi's eyes softened significantly. They were both Konoha shinobi and there was no need to treat each other like enemies.

Kakashi inspected the smiling girl before him and answered coldly. "Yes, I remember you, and rather well."

"As far as I have heard, you have grown to be quite strong since we last met, even though you seem to have retained your destructive tendencies." Kakashi looked around and set his eyes on a certain series of destroyed pillars. Who could be responsible for this?

"I am not destructive, Kakashi, things just tend to prematurely fall victim to the teeth of time and consequently they crumble easily in my presence. Don't you think that 'quite strong' isn't a bit of a grave understatement, though?" Asami took his compliment with humour.

Kakashi ignored her last question. "Aside from discussing your obvious strength, I am more interested in speaking of something else. What are you even doing here, Asami? Did you follow me?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and scrutinized her with renewed interest. He wanted an explanation and he wanted to confirm a certain theory, whether Asami was indeed who he suspected her to be, or not.

The girl appeared to be confused and tilted her head. "You want to know what I am doing here? Ehm, I don't understand why you need to know that, Kakashi? I was merely walking around when I spotted a very dangerous and scary looking snakey-person who was slithering around. Obviously, I decided to follow this highly suspicious person and investigate further what he was up to. After all, I wouldn't be a good Kunoichi if I let snakes roam freely without supervision."

Kakashi stared at her. So, she was one of those people. The girl was good and she was clearly hiding things, but what?

"Or to cut down a long story short, the reason I am here is classified, Kakashi, and you sadly don't have the necessary clearance." Asami smiled and used the infamous and effective ANBU shortcut to avoid any further senseless discussions, I am an ANBU and everything we do is super-duper secret. So, don't ask stupid questions and shut up.

Asami prepared to leave, but she was interrupted by a laughing Kakashi.

"What's so funny?" She halted and turned her head.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "Well, I didn't expect such a blunt answer, but you have basically confirmed my suspicions, Asami. Therefore, allow me to rephrase my original question, what is an ANBU such as yourself doing playing at the Chunin exams, White Death?"

He knew. Asami froze and for a brief moment she was taken by surprise. "For many reasons, Kakashi. And the majority of those are as I said classified."

Asami narrowed her eyes. "But more importantly, where did you get that last piece of information, Kakashi? Where did you learn such a stupid nickname? Because it is one thing to guess that I am an ANBU, but knowing who I am with uncanny precision is another thing." Kakashi had now her full and undivided attention.

Kakashi remained calm, "Well, let's say that it's a trade secret, or rather a combination of a hunch, recent events, and a few old ANBU friends who told me a few stories regarding a scary black-haired girl with a fetish for swords, roughly your age,who is prone to large scale destruction, and who suffers from a subtle pyromania."

Asami gigled amused. "True, true, that indeed sounds a lot like me, except for me being a pyromaniac. I am not a pyromaniac, I just like explosions, and fire. Anyway, the great Kakashi can officially thank me for saving his ass by roasting a big fat snake for dinner now that my cover is blown."

Kakashi could only furrow an eyebrow. "Saved my ass? You didn't do anything. He was about to leave if you hadn't interfered and picked a fight with him."

"Oh, I understand, Kakashi, letting a dangerous S-rank criminals who probably plans the destruction of Konoha to escape is certainly a clever idea. I am certain that taking no action would have improved the quality of life considerably." Asami rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Ungrateful bastard.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi countered.

Asami clicked her tongue. "Oh please, mon chéri, don't play stupid. Do you think I am blind, or what? I saw you and I saw the naked fear in your eyes, Kakashi. You were scarred by Orochimaru, weren't you, Kakashi?"

"But don't worry, you don't have to justify yourself to me, Kakashi. Being scared is a completely normal and natural reaction." Kakashi remained silent and ignored her accusations because he was focused on something else. He stared into her black eyes and sensed an inexplicable feeling of profound unease. These eyes, he had seen such, or rather he had felt such an aura before.

Asami approached Orochimaru's corpse and she stopped. "Anyway, I have done today what you apparently were unable to do. I succeeded where you would have failed and you shouldn't forget it, Kakashi." Asami snapped her fingers and at her command a brilliant purple blaze devoured Orochimaru and turned his body to fine ash. He wasn't needed anymore.

"And why is that?" Kakashi asked.

Asami marvelled at the beautifully violent flames which were her special creation and they always enraptured her. " Consider what I am about to tell you a special honour, a sign of trust between fellow shinobi, because I am asking for your cooperation, Kakashi."

"My cooperation?"

Her voice was sweet and friendly. "Yes, I need your cooperation for a certain little private project of mine."

"And that would be?" Kakashi's eyes were locked upon her. What was the little princess planning?

Asami waited, and waited, and waited. "You see, Kakashi, the Hokage is in a certain sense the physical manifestation of the Will of Fire. But even the brightest flame will one day inevitably fade. And that day someone else has to take over and bear this responsibility."

Her fire grew stronger and stronger in size until her flames illuminated the entire room with a dark purple glimmering.

"The only question which remains is of who will succeed Hiruzen. He is old, Kakashi, and he has already given up his position once if remember correctly. Wasn't the Fourth your former sensei, Kakashi?" Asami asked sweetly.

"According to my information, the Third intends to designate his new official successor soon after the Chunin exams. And as you might know, Kakashi, the next Hokage is traditionally chosen among the strongest and most talented. The most experienced shinobi the village has to offer which is largely independent of age and bloodlines."

"At the moment, the most likely candidates are either Tsunade, who is unfortunately unavailable. Jiraiya, who is a rather suboptimal choice considering his well-known dispositions. Danzo, who has far too many skeletons in his closet to be elected. Yourself, Kakashi. A shinobi who is renowned across the lands for your skill and experience. And …" Asami examined her pretty flame and paused dramatically.

"You." Kakashi finally realised what the girl wanted.

Asami giggled. "Yes, I. You are right, Kakashi, my intentions are indeed to become the next Hokage and shoulder the future of the village. And my chances are actually not so small if my only relevant competitor should decide to forgo his nomination and lend his support to me."

"I might be young, but my true strength is beyond doubt, my reputation is well-earned, Kakashi, and everyone a part of the village council knows it. They can no longer ignore me and my rightful claim." Her conflagration expanded. Nourished by her Chakra, it grew into a purple wall of fire. The air itself was burning as it became saturated with her abundant Chakra and Kakashi remembered the colour. It was the same purple he saw years ago, appearing as an otherworldly and destructive purpleof unimaginable power.

"Therefore, do me a favour, Kakashi, do Konoha a favour and …" Asami stopped speaking for but a moment as she focused her furious red-coloured eyes on Orochimaru's ashen remnants.

"It seems that our silly snake still has a few aces up his sleeve. But I can assure him that he won't survive our next encounter with pure luck alone." Asami clenched her fists. Oruchimaru's empty carcass slowly started to crumble. The snake indeed had shed its skin and Orochimaru had escaped due to her negligence, which infuriated her immensely.

Asami extinguished her flames and suppressed her passionate eyes and Chakra. "I hope that you will think about my proposal. I will see you another time, Kakashi, Sasuke."

The black princess smiled softly at them and Sasuke was shocked by what he had witnessed. This power, this aura, this fire of hers was incomprehensible.

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	29. Arc IV Chapter IV

**IV**

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 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc IV Chapter IV**

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Little Asami crossed the sparsely lit corridors of the tower, making her way back to the arena stances, which took her longer than initially expected. Without a particular destination and she was solely guided by her subconsciousness which increasingly took control over her body, Asami was stepping erratically through darkness. Instead of being distracted by such mundane matters such as going the right direction,she was more focused on kicking metaphorical dust all over the ground while still fuming over earlier events.

She was partially frustrated, simply dissatisfied and primarily angry. Asami was angry with herself for failing so spectacularly. She cursed her own shortcomings, her inattentiveness and her arrogance. This weakness had ultimately cost her today's victory. A victory given away so easily. Thanks to a single moment, success had slipped through her hands like sand. Especially because of just a simple and stupid mistake. Stupid Asami, stupid Asami, stupid Asami.

Asami clenched her fists tightly until they turned white, which didn't make much of a difference considering her natural skin colour. She was most of the time hard on others, often condescending in her tone, albeit mostly for legitimate reasons in her eyes. Therefore, she had to be hard on herself too by consequently holding herself to the highest standards possible.

Failure was not acceptable. Failure was not admissible. Failure was not forgiven by reality. Asami hated failure as it was a sign of inevitable imperfection. The polar opposite of the purely idealistic perfection she always aimed for in her every action, an unattainable ideal she yearned for and always wanted to come closer to.

Annoyed and mainly distracted by her botched assassination attempt, she had almost slaughtered that little fucker Orochimaru, an oblivious Asami nearly forgot that she had officially announced her slightly megalomaniac phantasies to the world, which weren't truly megalomaniac. Being megalomaniac would mean something like conquering the world or something along those lines.

Asami mused while nodding affirmingly. Becoming Hokage was rather a realistic objective. It was a position which could be hers if fate decided to be generous and provide her with a bit of luck. And a mostly spontaneous decision she made in a fulminant moment of inspiration.

It may be a bit challenging, considering the fact that she was simply a thirteen-year-old and no set precedent was aiding her cause. Except for the recently deceased third Mizukage, who should have been a more or less fifteen-year-old when he was appointed. And what did the boy have which she didn't? Intelligence? Hopefully not. Experience? Most likely not.

Granted, he was two insignificant years ahead of her and happened to be the Jinchuriki of the Three Tails, but Asami was pretty much sure that she could have eaten the poor boy for breakfast. Regardless of his age and the beast sealed inside his body, he practically stood no chance were they to meet in battle. In that event, she would personally mince the tailed beast and used it to make Asami's giant oversized magical turtle soup. After all, the Sanbi should be all things considered an overgrown turtle? Asami's mind was briefly occupied with the important culinary question as to how her imagined Biju turtle soup would taste. Surely, it should have an interesting flavour.

Anyway, the main question was which sane person would make a child the next Hokage. Because Asami certainly wouldn't despite all the strange patriarchal tendencies of this world.

In conclusion, the odds were heavily, heavily, heavily stacked against her candidature. Asami didn't think, however, that it was humanly impossible to achieve. And if something was humanly possible, then she considered it still within her reach. It simply required a small amount of effort.

Because why not? Why couldn't she be the next Hokage, a position which was within the grasp of her tiny hands?

Especially, if she played her cards correctly this time around. As a matter of fact, Asami knew that Hiruzen planned on stepping down again to pass on his famed hat to someone else, which wasn't particularly surprising anyone. After all, it was her and her squad who had delivered the letter to the Fire Daimyo and announced that the inauguration would be prospectively held a few months after the completed Chunin Exams when a suitable candidate would be chosen.

And it was she who had thoroughly and extensively checked the sealed scroll in question for potential explosives hidden within and not because she was actually interested in its contents. As the more experienced shinobi might know, you could never be sure if there wasn't anybody threatening the esteemed life of our Daimyo and such a cowardly assassination attempt had to be clearly prevented at any cost.

Furthermore, she knew that the electoral college consisted of six members according to her knowledge. The three current village elders plus the three different chiefs of staff who were together the precious prince-electors in this imperial election. And the 'advisory opinion' of the previous Hokage which was de facto rather obligatory and binding in nature. Fortunately, she could deduce that the Third was currently relatively indecisive in regard to designating his potential successor, otherwise he wouldn't have hesitated this long.

The vote wasn't decided by unanimity but by a simple majority, which meant 4 or mere 3 votes cast in your favour and you could be Hokage. Provided, no other contender achieved a similar result and the incumbent Hokage didn't particularly oppose the choice, which was rather important, not to say extremely important.

The ANBU Commander should be automatically and logically on her side as long as Kakashi didn't participate. The Army and ONI were both neutral in general. But they were susceptible to any sort of secretive and less official bargains. Give them additional funds, resources, etc. and you could count on their loyalty at the right moment. She didn't know what the preferences of the two remaining councillors were, Homura and Koharu. Who was their favourite? It was difficult to say. Who knew? They were both potential wild cards. Perhaps, or perhaps not.

And Danzo, who was the central figure in this entire game and everything theoretically depended on him. Because her problem was primarily in getting into the exclusive circle of candidates, the rest could be achieved by other means. She needed someone who would nominate her officially to the council and that would thus open the door to power.

And Danzo was her man, in a certain sense. He was often alone in his opinions because he had an overall disastrous reputation within the village, which practically prevented him from ever becoming Hokage himself.

Seriously, who in their right mind would ever support Danzo as the next Hokage? Well, the answer was pretty much obviously due to his not so insignificant popularity issue. He was an absolute nobody, aside from his apparatus of mindless Root drones, thus no one had any interest whatsoever in helping the old man acquire even more power.

Danzo, a man who was built from rumours and facts of being responsible for a variety of unsolved assassinations, or rather mysterious and purely coincidental deaths of high ranking Konoha shinobi. Danzo had a lot of little secrets be buried deep down beneath the earth for the next ten thousand years or so.

It was overall likelier that Konoha would be destroyed rather than allowing him anywhere near the Hokage hat in his whole , the senile gerontocrat had connections, and these were what she needed for her plan to succeed. Because in the end, his opinion still carried a lot of weight among the village council.

Such was the current situation and Asami brooded over a few minor details concerning her future power grab while she was still striding through the seemingly infinite dark catacombs of the tower.

First step, recruit Danzo by calling in all the favours she could call on for considering his 'helpful advice' during certain missions, for sometimes acting against the Hokage's explicit orders due to some very unfortunate circumstances. And working 'accidentally' closely with elements of Root.

Otherwise, let him know that in the case that he should fail to demonstrate the desired will to comply with her wishes, a very thick set of files containing very, very sensitive information would quickly land on the desk of the Hokage. And little unforeseen incidents could happen to his precious Root ANBU.

Second step, persuade the ANBU Commander to support her. It was highly likely possible to achieve without threats or any significant blackmailing.

Third step, guide Inoichi and Shikaku to their personal enlightenment that her election could be rather beneficial to their according branches, the tactic also known as bribing the notoriously underfunded and neglected Army and ONI with new shiny toys and additional personnel.

And voilà you had four votes and you were the new Hokage. You see, it was relatively simple to accomplish on paper.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to even try. Asami's mood rocketed down. She plunged down into a dark valley of depression and insecurity before climbing up again. Asami banished any sort of qualms from her mind. She would get this damn red-painted hat as sure as the sun rose in the east because she was the one who presumably deserved it the most. And what could possibly go wrong in the pursuit of her modest dreams?

Furthermore, she hadn't the patience to wait another century until such an opportunity presented itself again to her.

Provided, the Fifth displayed the same stupendous longevity as Hiruzen, which was an exception to the rule. Hashirama had passed away early. He died from… Hmmm, what did off the 'God of Shinobi' again? Sickness, alcohol, gambling, women, his young age? Tobirama followed him soon afterwards. And the blonde Namikaze didn't set a record for the longest term of office. He barely lasted a year before biting the dust.

Moreover, if she succeeded in at least one of these points, then the chances were high that she could win the vote by default thanks to a lack of decent competition. Because from her perspective, who could be her competitors?

Tsunade? An alcoholic, gambling, famously short-tempered woman? Could such a person fully be trusted with the fragile future of Konoha? No, definitely not.

Jiraiya? A renowned pervert who wandered aimlessly across the wide lands with far too much time, using it to conduct his 'special research'? Do you see this man as a good choice for the next Hokage? No, no, no, he was exactly where he belonged.

And what of Kakashi? Well, he was admittedly a harder nut to crack. Fortunately, he didn't strike Asami as the power-hungry politician type compared with herself. He was more like a reliable pillar, happy to operate in the background far from the centre of the boring playground of politics. And that was her advantage.

Otherwise, he wasn't a bit of an emotional brick wall for example, but who wasn't after serving in the ANBU? After all, nobody was flawless and besides a few minor details he would be by far the best candidate in her rather humble opinion, except for herself.

Because honestly, wouldn't she be a great Hokage? Didn't she have everything necessary to be the Hokage whom Konoha needed? She wasn't exactly a stupid person, or at least she was smart enough to run circles around all the country bumpkins in her vicinity.

Her course set and she would gently push aside any resistance. But an equally important question was, how should she call her future underlings ... ehm, fellow Konoha villagers of her crown lands?

Concerned about the correct terminology, Asami mused to herself by tipping her fingers against her tilted head. Serfs? No, that was far too medieval for the current age and culture. Minions? That wouldn't do. She searched for something more neutral. Citizens? No, that was far too liberal. Subjects perhaps would do? No, that too was flawed. It was awfully monarchic probably, wasn't it?

However, in Asami's vivid imagination, the idea of being called and crowning herself Empress had such an undeniable nice touch, hadn't it? Because seriously, Hokage? With all due to respect to the traditional reasons which gave the title a modicum of sense, but what the fuck was Fire Shadow even supposed to mean? Clearly, Land of Fire, ergo Fire. But which idiot would call themselves an amorphous Shadow of whatever?

The titulature was obviously lacking in necessary pomp and thus were no fun at all. Too short, too simple, not nearly enough humongous for her taste. It was almost as if a normal person was supposed to be able to pronounce it. Changes had to be made to the protocol, phrases had to be added.

For example, something like this, Her Imperial and Royal Majesty, Asami I, By the Grace of Heaven enlightened Empress of the Chrysanthemum Throne, of the Land of Fire and of Her other Realms and Territories, Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, bla-bla-bla-bla-bla… you get the point.

Aside from creating obnoxiously long titles out of thin air for the sake of annoying everyone, ta very ambitious Asami had indeed a few great things in mind. Because in the end, Asami was the one Konoha needed from a purely practical standpoint. The village had to move on and brace itself if it wanted to stand the test of time.

On the surface everything appeared to be calm, but it was evident to the careful observer, and Asami was a careful observer, that the wheels of history were moving again in the background. The same socio-economic mechanisms which had caused the Third Great War were gaining momentum again, invigorated by the brief intermezzo of these peaceful interwar years.

Mechanisms which had never truly ceased to stop working. A peace treaty may have ended the previous war, but the underlying causes still existed. The text was a peace treaty in name only and the letters were merely an armistice granting precious time in order to recuperate. Under the pacific surface, the situation was boiling and the temperature was steadily climbing.

The signs were undeniable and everyone was holding their breath waiting for the moment open hostilities should break out. The day of empires had come and the next war was inevitable, it was purely a matter of time. Personally, she gave the world five to six years at most.

Old border disputes were starting to flare up again along the various demarcation lines. Amegakure had grown suspiciously silent in the last years like the rest of the small neighbouring countries. Kumo was expanding their forces beyond comparison, supported by their growing economy and their closest ally, Iwa, followed their example. According to Konoha's intelligence network, both powers were increasing their numbers of active shinobi at an alarming rate. Fortunately, Kirigakure was currently not a major threat thanks to destabilizing effects which the bloody mist had on the village.

In conclusion, the collective strength of their enemies kept increasing day by day while their own was, in contrast, effectively decreasing. Konoha's sole ally Sumogakure was plagued by a state of steady decline, economically and militarily, and slowly became a burden rather than an asset. And Konoha itself, albeit they may have won the war in a certain sense, was stagnating.

From her perspective, drastic measures had to be taken to reverse this concerning trend. Even if it meant that she would ultimately be the one to start the last Fourth Shinobi World War by initiating her pre-emptive strike against Kumo and wipe them off from the face of this earth like everyone else who opposed her. The Fourth Shinobi World War would be the last of its kind settling once and for all the old question of who reigned the world.

Asami reached finally the end of this damned labyrinth filled with dark corridors. She saw a light at the end of the tunnel growing nearer and nearer to the lonely rays of sunlight awaiting her entrance, yearning for her missing presence.

The cheerful girl exited the tunnel behind her, stepping into a seemingly forgotten room devoid of any human presence. Asami was alone here, alone as always.

Aside from being a dead end, the place was clearly different, the aura, the design was different from the ones she had seen before in this tower. The walls were covered by black marble plates, a black which complemented the serene silence. The polished stone reflected her similarly pigmented eyes and she touched its surface, cold and forsaken, betrayed by its original white colour. The sole thing which brightened up the melancholic atmosphere, was a immanent feeling of decline and solitude and the pale rays of light entering through the windows rendering visible the floating particles in the air.

Asami would have enjoyed the wonderful scenery if her mood been wasn't ruined by a small little detail, she got lost and she had absolutely no idea where she currently was. Dammit.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

In the end, Asami was able to somehow reach her final destination and thus concluded her long-lasting odyssey through the veritable jungle the tower was.

Fortunately, it only took her a few hours. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she got herself lost time and time again in this confusing structure without seeing anything resembling a helpful landmark, which she was hesitant to admit.

As a consequence of the latter phenomenon, Asami slowly started to believe that the naturally malevolent walls, these corridors around her were actually moving, changing position, leading her intentionally into dead ends and opening new passages where she could have sworn none were before. Which couldn't have been possible, however, and was obviously the result of her own treacherous imagination.

The simplest way to solve her dilemma would have been to breach the walls, a tempting option she briefly considered but quickly discarded together with other stupid ideas like asking some of the various ninja for help. Pff, help. Asami didn't need such things such as asking for directions. Because the right direction was automatically the way she walked, even when she hadn't succeeded yet in actively distorting reality through the sheer power of her will.

Moreover, the childish side of her soul enjoyed the prospect of triumphing over this sworn enemy by beating the labyrinth on her own. Therefore, Asami didn't give up so easily.

And thus her inner child went on a journey and gradually explored the tower. On her expedition, the girl mapped the entire area in her mind where the still undiscovered regions.

Asami challenged her adversary which mainly consisted of paved floors and insidious stairs with little success though. She went up ↓, left →, right ←, down ↑.

* * *

(^ᴗ^) motivation.

↖→←↘↓↓→→↑→↖→→↙←←↓↑↗→↙←→←↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘↘→→↙←↗←→→↙←↗↘←↑↗↘→→↙←↗←↓↑↑↑←↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↗↘↑↘↗↗↘↗↘→↖←←←↓→ ←←←↖→←→↙←↗←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ ↘↓←↗↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←←←↖→←→↙.

Still motivated (^_^'), someway.

(^-^) high-spirited, second attempt.

←↗↘↓←←←←↓↑→↙↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←←←↖→←→,

∠(^ー^) greeting random Hokage,

↙←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←. (-_-) disappointment.

→↙←↗↗↘↙←→←←←↓↑→↙←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←,

(◕ヮ◕)/*:･ﾟ✧ trying magic to solve this existential crisis,

↗↘↓↓←←←↓↑→ ←←←↖→←→↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↙←↗↘↓←↙←↗↘↓←←↓↑↓↑↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↙←↗↘↓↓→.

(¬_¬) logical failure.

(´･_･`) feeling of existential helplessness.

↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↖→←→←↓→↖→↙←↓↑↑←↗→←←↗→↖→↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↖←←.

(︶｡︶) tired.

↘↓↓→↖→→→↙←↑↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘↓↓→→↓→↖→←↑→↖.

(ᴗ˳ᴗ) sleeping.

＼（*Ｏ*）／ waking up.

→←←←↖→↓←←↓→↖↖→←←←↓↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘↓↓→↘↑↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘→←↑.

( ・・)つ-●●● hungry, eating dango. Still hungry.

↖→←↘↓↓→→↑→↖→→↙←←↓↑↗→↙←→←↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘↘→→↙←↗←→→↙←↗↘←↑↗↘→→↙←↗←↓↑↑↑← ↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↓↑↑↗↘↑↘↗↗↘↗↘→↖.

(⌒_⌒') no change in sight.

←↓↑↓→↖←←↓↑→↙↗↘↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←↗→↖→←↑→↖→→↙←↗↘↘↓↓→↖→↙←↓↑↑←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←←↖←↓↑↑←↗→.

(*^◇^)_旦 tea pause.

↖→←←←↓↑↗↘→→↙↗↘↓↓→↖←↗↘↓↓→→→↙←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←←↓↑↑↑← ↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↑→↖→→↙←↗↗↘↗↘→↖→←↙←↗↘↓↓→↖←←.

(x_x) K.O.

* * *

As the graphical version of her journey had clearly shown, Asami had failed to make any significant progress on her way. Her subconsciousness seemed to interfere rather actively with her pathfinding, producing a series of aggravating lapsus as if she had never actually the intention to get there in her lifetime.

No matter where she planned on going, her mind mysteriously wandered into the opposite direction preventing her from ever reaching the ever distant, fucking, arena. Albeit the arena was technically only a few minutes away from her, Asami didn't come closer to the place.

Her mind wanted to go left, her body turned right. She up, her body down. Baffled by this kind of atypical obstacle, Asami could only scratch her head while searching for a potential solution to her problem. And eventually, the girl found it by viewing her situation from a different perspective. Asami had simply to do the exact opposite of what she was doing all this time. Paradoxical as it might seem, you simply had to take the wrong route where you didn't want, ehm, wanted to go while convincing yourself from the sensibility of your own choice in order to get there where you didn't want to. Wasn't she a genius, right?

And thus Asami was currently hopping up the stairs tasting the sweet fruits of victory, Asami 1: Tower 0. Down in the stadium, there was going on an insignificant fight between the Oto mummy and a voluminous Akimichi.

The returning girl approached her sensei, Katsusane, and Hisaaki. She blinked and wondered what the two had been doing , although she had a hunch. The trio viewed her with surprise understandably. After all she was one, two, three, ehm, for some time occupied with something else of immense and unimaginable importance. And certainly not with such a thing as getting lost repeatedly.

"I am back. So, what have I missed?"

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	30. Arc IV Chapter V

**IV**

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 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc IV Chapter V**

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

"Hmmm, what you have missed?" Hisaaki took his time and began to brood over the quite obvious answer," Honestly, not much has happened. After your match, everything paled in comparison skill level-wise."

The boy used his hand to simulate the graph in question. He started above his head and continued in a straight line until the arm fell suddenly into a bottomless abyss indicating the sharp decline into mediocrity. "They were still fun to watch, though. But not you, the one man... No, one-woman army wiping the floor with everyone in her way."

Asami deflected with a dismissing hand. "Yeah, yeah, I hope so." And damn well she hoped so. Aside from doubting that a single one of the Genin present could be ever her equal, which went clearly unsaid, she would have never accepted a defeat anyway.

All these years working her pretty ass off, only to be beaten by some 'no name upstart brat'? No, surely not. Not today, not tomorrow, not in a year, never. Asami had her pride too, and hers was always burning brightly like her fire and she would defend it until her final breath.

Otherwise she would have retired on the spot, leaving her ninja career behind. Not to mention, she was probably of the worst losers in history, deeply jealous under her not so innocent surface and certainly not lacking a healthy portion of hubris innate to her character.

Hisaaki continued with listing a variety of the more memorable matchups," Like I said, they were fun to watch. The scary insect type was pretty skilled. The Oto Genin stood practically no chance against him. The catfight between the pink-haired girl and blondie, ehmmm, how should I say this, gets probably the title of the lamest match of the whole exams. It ended with a fist fight in which they have, believe it or not, knocked each other out. The Nara has basically won thanks to a hard concrete wall. The Naruto boy had the good fortune to fart at the right moment in a certain opponent's face. An older Hyuga successfully mobbed his chanceless cousin. A truly great achievement that was. And..."

"Stop, stop. I get it, I get it", Asami interrupted him forcefully while waving her hand to indicate that he should please stop. As much as she appreciated his efforts to inform her about the newest gossip circulating in the shinobi world, she had neither the time nor the intention to hear his whole life story.

Despite being minimally interesting, the girl and her blackened soul cared neither about well-known Hyuga family issues and their semi-professional bullying, nor about the victorious Aburame and their fucking insects.

Asami hated these damned bugs, and also everything arachnoid. Only a dead bug was a good bug, purged by her holy fire. Fuck biodiversity and ecology.

Nor about the relatively bright, so much that she had to concede, Shikamaru pulling off one of his miraculous strategies. And surely not about the absolutely weakest Jinchuriki since the foundation of the village...

"What did you say, Hisaaki?" Asami gaped slightly. Please what?

Hisaaki was confused. " Eh?"

Asami shook her head in disbelief.. She had probably misheard him. "I mean, could you please repeat the last thing you said?"

"The 'and'?" Hisaaki was uncertainly what she wanted.

"No, no, the thing before."

"The Hyuga successfully mobbing?"

"Not that, further back."

"The hard concrete wall?"

"No, afterwards."

This time Hisaaki hit the right target. " Ah, the yellow-haired kid. Yeah, I thought he would lose from the start. But then..." The Genin stopped when he noticed Asami's less enthusiastic staring. Asami massaged her temples. She wasn't particularly happy with this glaringly wrong allocation of resources, which could be managed far, far, far, farbetter.

Translated, he may be the son of the former Hokage and have high quality Uzumaki genetics. But don't give an incompetent brat the likely mightiest tool at Konoha's disposal, or at least train the boy properly for fuck's sake. The mere act of letting all his potential go to waste was the height of criminal irresponsibility and negligence.

The boy was a living weapon and was destined to be shaped into one under any circumstances as he was one of the village's greatest war potentials.

Instead, shouldn't they give the Nine-Tails to someone else, *cough* give the Kyubi to her, give the Kyubi to her, Asami wanted to have her own cute fox to pet *cough*, who might be interested in putting the creature to a better use. After all, wouldn't she be a fantastic Jinchuuriki? Unfortunately, these wishes were completely unrealistic, a fact that the pragmatist in her was aware of.

Asami sighed heavily. Otherwise you received the present result, a Genin with a Chakra level which rivaled hers who was barely able to win against whatever opponent thanks to a random deus ex machina.

Asami was dissatisfied. "Anyway, do you care to explain why the two of you are still here, Hisaaki, Katsusane? Because normally a fight tends to end with someone losing? So, what exactly have you done?"

Neither Hisaaki nor Katsusane showed any sign of fatigue, or even a scratch. They didn't fight at all. So what happened? Did they both forfeit, or what?

"Ehmmm, yeah, eh." Hisaaki scratched and his silence equalled a confession.

"You didn't, did you? You chickened out, right?" Her ominous gaze targeted them both as if she had caught them stealing directly from her cookie jar.

"Yes and no. Borrowing your words, Asami, after a short deliberation we both executed a masterful tactical retreat without equal." Hisaaki defended himself.

Asami smiled, sincerely amused and helpfully supplemented. "Huh, tactical retreat? Is that what the youth calls? Withdrawing because you don't want to fight against each other today? And don't you think that it was a bit of an anticlimactic end of your Chunin exam?"

"Anticlimactic? Maybe, but we have preserved something far more important in doing so." Hisaaki laughed while throwing his arm over Katsusane's uncomfortable shoulder, who had successfully managed to hold himself to the quieter side-lines.

"And that would be?" She knew what was coming next and Asami rolled her eyes. No. No. No. Please no …

"Friendship." Ah, dammit.

"Really, friendship?" Asami furrowed an eyebrow.

Hisaaki nodded vigorously. "Yes, friendship. Asami, you shouldn't underestimate the value of friendship in these hard times. Especially ...

"The real reason is more like he didn't want to be humiliated by me. And to save his face he pressured me into surrendering by constantly begging me before the match", Katsusane interrupted his friend putting an end to this charade, "Otherwise, everyone would have found out that he still hasn't mastered his Katon properly and that he can't do anything besides throwing a few shuriken."

Hisaaki elbowed the vile traitor whose teeth were in his flank. "Hey, aren't you supposed to support me instead of stabbing me in the back?"

Katsusane countered stoically," Aren't you exaggerating, Hisaaki? I don't think I have used a kunai to stab you."

"Yes, maybe. However, the sharp truth hurts nevertheless." Hisaaki pressed one hand at his chest.

"Is that true?" An inquisitive Asami turned her eyes to a normally happy Hisaaki.

"Not exactly ... Ok yes, it is, I am simply not the most talented shinobi. In fact I've probably never been a very good one to begin with if I'm compared with Katsusane and all these powerful Genin."

"Seriously, I have to pour everything I have into every tiny fireball I make, constantly watching to make sure I don't burn out. I try so hard and there here are, someone who sets the bar so incredibly high by casually throwing Katon around like nothing."

Compared to you, Asami, I feel kind of ... inadequate. You know, like I wasn't good enough to even stand here to begin with at the Chunin exam." His shoulders hunched together.

And the girl didn't interrupt him to remind him that it was an incredibly bad idea to compare anyone with her. Instead, she chose to remain silent.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

The proctors and even the Hokage himself were assembled in the arena. They were inspecting the different approaching Genin. They formed a straight line as if they were about to receive some kind of prestigious decoration.

Asami noticed how they were already looking impatiently in her direction. She concluded that she shouldn't let them wait any longer as she was indeed a tiny bit late.

"As much as I enjoy your presence, I think I still have some business to attend to." She gave Katsusane, Hatsu and Hisaaki a friendly smile as her final parting gift before disappearing from their sight.

Asami formed a hand-seal. She vanished only to reappear among the ranks of startled and slightly annoyed Genin.

Anko gave her an angry stare. She made her irritation very clear. "Great, soooooo our little princess graces us finally with her presence after deciding to join everyone."

Princess? Asami giggled an exercised her natural right of defence. "Anko, if there is one thing I have been taught over the course of my life, it is that it isn't particularly important to be the first to a party, but rather the best. Moreover, I regard myself rather as crown princess."

Anko grinned confidently. "Ah, so we here have a lass who knows how to talk back, interesting. Haven't you been also taught to respect your elders and betters?"

What, the woman had the nerve to speak of elders and betters? This was an open declaration of war, one she couldn't allow to go unchallenged. Moreover, the proctor wasn't the only one in this room who could punch below the belt.

Asami was vindictive and struck back with her own broadside. "Personally, I don't dispute the fact that you are nominally my senpai, although I think that respect is earned and is not automatically given. The better part is, however, open to debate, Anko." Asami grinned sardonically as she didn't really consider her to be a worthy opponent.

Anko ground her teeth, visibly enraged and only a few moments away from exploding. "You arrogant brat! Just wait until I shove one of your kunai up your ass. Then we will see what is open to debate."

Asami smiled and added further fuel to the fire. "I beg to differ. It isn't arrogance as long as my claims are factually correct despite some misguided individuals may assume otherwise. Therefore, bring it on if you can, Anko." Tension rose between the two bellicose Kunoichi. , Both were stubborn and didn ́t intend to give ground.

Hiruzen observed the events from the sidelines while taking a very deep huff on his reliable companion, his pipe. Hiruzen had lost count of how many times he had to mediate between different shinobi bickering amongst themselves like children. Perhaps, it was because the majority of them were technically indeed children.

Constantly mitigating the effects of personal animosities, clan rivalries and grudges lasting into eternity and could never be forgotten because you had been slighted by some no name Hyuga in some corner of the village for whatever petty reason. Hiruzen was too old for these sorts of conflicts. He cursed once again his fate of being called back into service from his retirement and thought about why he hadn't given yet anyone else the more than doubtful honour of serving as Hokage. Minato had clearly died far too early.

Fortunately, the aged shinobi's reflexes were still formidable and he intervened just in time before the two suddenly started to hurl sharp kunai at each other, which was a scenario within the realm of possibility, a very likely one too.

Anko's hand was steadily creeping towards her kunai holster. On the other side, cheerful white sparks danced across Asami's palm, awaiting gleefully the impending fight. Hiruzen addressed them both with an underlying forceful tone beneath his smile. "Ohohohoho! Despite my old age, I am delighted to see that the Will of Fire burns so brightly within the two of you, Anko and Asami. But, I think there are better places to solve ou little conflict. Don't you think so?"

Asami clicked her tongue in disappointment. Hiruzen was a horrible spoilsport, but she wasn't particularly keen on directly challenging his authority for no good reason. She was just playing around in the first place by teasing Anko. She didn't need to provoke a real fight.

Asami petted her hand and whispered sweetly to her Chakra," Don't worry, we will find you some nice targets in the near future." A sudden joyful spark of lightning seconded her opinion.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Satisfied with having prevented the outbreak of the 4th shinobi war, the Hokage chewed on his pipe. Hiruzen eyed the rest of the Genin, scrutinizing every single one of them. Asami included. She was still sulking and pouting as usual.

And Hiruzen ignored her sometimes childish behaviour as usual. "Well, I will explain then the finals."

After a short pause Hiruzen continued," The final round is an event where each one of you will show off your skills in front of everyone. I want you to demonstrate your abilities to the fullest as a representative of your respective villages."

"The final round will commence approximately one month from now."

Her favourite Jinchuriki was the first to respond," What? The exams aren't going to be here, right now?"

"In order to provide us with a suitable preparation time for the last part of this major event, we have decided to give you all a month. As it takes ..." Bla-bla- bla. Short version, we need to wait for the pampered Daimyo, dignitaries, nobles and the rest of the audience to arrive.

"Not to mention the time it takes for all of you examinees to prepare yourself for the coming matches. To gain knowledge of your enemies, to place yourself in an advantageous position, time is essential. Knowing your enemy is the first step in defeating them."

Asami managed only barely to suppress her giggle. As if any amount of knowledge could save them from her.

"Therefore, in the spirit of fairness and equality you will have a month to train and hone your skills accordingly." The Hokage finished dramatically with an exaggerated sense of foreshadowing.

Sure, sure, spirit of fairness and equality? Wasn't that a bit rich coming from someone who sent her to infiltrate the Chunin exams?

Hiruzen allowed his words to sink in. " I would like you to take your leave, but there is still something important to do before. I want you all to take a single slip of paper from the box Anko is holding."

Asami was the last to draw and faced Anko's icy stare. Her hand reached for her destined lot, not that she had much choice. She fished out her number, the number ten. So, who had the honour to serve as her next victi ... opponent for now?

The Hokage nodded. " Ibiki, could you please show us the arranged matches?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Ibiki stepped forward to present them the data on his clipboard," As you can see, these are your matchups. In total, we have four matches in the first round. And the opponents of the fourth match has to be determined by two preliminary matches due the number of participants."

Asami studied the tournament tree with limited interest until she discovered that she got apparently said bonus round. And apparently, she was about to face an interesting opponent.

"What a drag", the words echoed loudly through the room.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

After everyone had dispersed, Asami was about to leave. She planned to to enjoy her newly gained vacation days, this so called one month's worth of 'training time'. As if any Genin could get stronger in a handful of days when they lacked years of practice and experience. Anyway, she was happy to receive her well-earned rest time, which was welcome after this unexpectedly challenging Chunin Exam.

Despite being a battle maniac with every fibre of her being, Asami was bored by these exams. normally, she would never say no to a good fight. Instead, she embraced them and indulged in them.

Asami could only describe this feeling she experienced as wonderful. An insatiable yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary, the incomprehensible. Your body trembled in anticipation, filled by contradictory impulses almost ripping your innermost apart. The heightened awareness of the huntsmen, the profound terror of the quarry. You were a world to yourself, saturated with the appalling aura of your most savage instincts.

You were walking on the knife's edge, along the ever close abyss, a single step apart from falling down. Everything could be lost and everything gained. It was solely either you or your enemy while the world around faded into shadowy nothingness.

And your mind craved for this one glorious, fleeting moment in which destiny culminated, fate manifested itself in its purest form. The moment you triumphed over death, the act of defying your own non-existence. The fable of your life was in your small hands waiting to be carved into stone by letters of glory.

Compared to her, however, these Genin were little children. Sadly, they were too weak to provide her with any true challenge despite calling themselves her opponents in this meaningless sideshow, a sideshow which should soon enough be done with. Asami sighed in disappointment.

But it didn't matter. She had now a few weeks off and she already an idea what she would be doing. Asami loved to experiment because she felt that her Susanoo unfortunately didn't offer the defensive and offensive capabilities she wished for.

Her Susanoo was strong, but considering its massive Chakra consumption Asami had the feeling that her armour was kind of … lacking. The Susanoo was a defective, an imperfect product. A product that could be improved considerably.

While Asami was contemplating some of her ideas, an arm suddenly grabbed her in a rather forceful way. Asami turned her head slowly. " How can I help you, Anko?"

Anko ignored her question. She ordered in an imperative tone leaving no doubt that she was expected to obey. " Hey, you! Come with me, brat. The Hokage wants to see you. Immediately. Understood?"

Asami believed that she didn't hear her right and viewed Anko disapprovingly with her narrowed eyes. Rarely, people dared to talk to her like this having the audacity to call her of all things a brat instead of addressing her by her proper name.

Asami narrowed her eyes. " Oh, really?"

"Yes."

"Any other stupid questions? No, good. Then le..." Anko was interrupted by a pouting Asami. Anko wasn't the only one who could tease.

"Me? Oh my, why me? Have I done something wrong, Anko? Or why does the magnanimous Hokage wish to speak with this humble Genin?" Asami accentuated every last word in the most arrogant way possible.

Anko didn't react at all. Specifically, not to the word Genin, which was an indicator that she didn't know anything yet. And contrary to her expectations and prior experiences, Anko had a better control over her infamous short temperament than everyone gave her credit for.

The woman explained in an initially professional manner," I don't know and I don't care. Ask the Hokage himself, if you want. But more importantly, get your ass moving. Because we don't have all the fucking day and I'm not getting any younger." Asami rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. She had to admit that the non-guilty her wasn't exactly blameless for the current situation.

Anko marched ahead, guiding her to the designated meeting room. But not before she gave an 'innocent' Asami a final threatening stare. "And for fuck's sake stop trying my patience, kid. Because my patience is thin and if you continue to do so, then I can promise you that you will regret it."

Asami broke out in a fit of good-hearted laughter since Anko's threats were relatively ineffective against a certain fearless girl. Despite Anko's negative first impression, Asami started to develop a genuine respect for her enemy. Nevertheless, Anko would still get a hefty payback for her actions in the not-so-distant future.

Anko had character and backbone, which were both traits the girl approved of. "Sure, sure. Please, lead the way, Anko."

The woman grumbled something incomprehensible about her being a pompous asshole, but she took the lead as requested. After all, Asami didn't have the intention to get herself lost again. One time was enough for today.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**


	31. Arc IV Chapter VI

**IV**

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 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

 **Arc IV Chapter VI**

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 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are you strong, Anko-san?"

"Who knows."

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"Are we not there yet?"

"N... Yes."

"Are you stronger than me?"

"Yes."

"Really? Because I doubt it. How about now? Are we there yet?" Asami wondered cluelessly while following her tormented guide. Ah, revenge was sweet.

"NO!"

"Hmmmm, does that not mean we are not not there yet?"

"Yes."

"Anko, Anko, is the life of a special Jonin interesting?"

"Yes and no."

Asami squealed again. "Anko, Anko, Anko, Anko ..."

"Yes, what is?" Anko sighed heavily. Why couldn't this assignment be straightforward. Instead, she had to put up with this. Did the Hokage want to punish her for something? Perhaps. But if so, for what? And why the heck was she still playing Asami's game by answering her stupid questions?

Asami asked in a sugar-coated manner," Isn't it more important to know where you're going than getting somewhere quickly? Because perhaps that is the reason we are not there yet. Right, right?"

Anko ignored her, which was probably the best choice in any case. Normally, she would have simply hit Asami on the head to get some peace. Unfortunately, this option was currently not available as the Hokage had advised her, for some strange reasons, against doing that. She wasn't allowed to hit her not even a little bit.

Otherwise there could be, "some very unpleasant and primarily unpredictable side effects". Anko didn ́t question the wisdom of his words, but it was unbelievable how much she wanted to hit the annoying girl.

Asami was slightly dismayed by receiving the cold shoulder. "By the way, Anko, are we there yet ..."

"Arghhhhh, shut the fuck up!" Enough was enough and this had to end. Anko focused her furious eyes on the girl who was responsible. The little demon clothed in black was annoying as hell and some kind of Fuinjutsu might be necessary to banish this evil spirit in human form.

Asami tilted her head cutely. "Is there a problem, Anko-san?"

Yes, there is a problem here. And quite an obvious one. The problem is called Asami. She was bombarding her mind relentlessly with different variations of "are we there yet" and it was slowly driving her insane.

Anko faced Asami. The girl was completely unfazed by her intimidating glare. The lass stood her ground and she reciprocated with her own glare. The girl had steel, although she still. that was certain.

"Listen, you insufferable brat. The situation is the following, I don't like you, and you don't like me. Therefore, I will repeat myself one final time, shut the fuck up!"

Asami crossed her arms and protested indignantly," You break my fragile heart, Anko-san, that is not true. Contrary to popular belief, I actually enjoy your presence ... Hey, hey, don't run away, you can't do that. Don't you know that that is bad sportsmanship? I have invested a lot of time in teasing you! Anko, you can't simply run away now!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Anko disengaged and Asami grumbled. The woman was good, or at least better than expected.

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

The beleaguering duo reached eventually the Hokage's office. Asami didn't even know that he had one here in this godforsaken tower. But apparently he did, albeit it was probably some sort of repurposed storage room. Anko opened the door and both of them entered in a more or less civilized manner.

The room was … shabby by all standards, to be euphemistic. And Asami was sure that her eyes spotted some unused brooms in the dark corners, hidden beneath an abundance of spider webs.

Despite the doubtful cleanliness of this 'office', Asami approached the piece of furniture which might dare to call itself a desk. The Hokage was sitting behind it and was occupied with signing off a mountain of paper. Next to him stood a poor Chunin who had to carry an equally impressive pile of cellulose, which kept growing more and more.

Hiruzen put aside his overworked pencil and the document he was currently working on. A visibly frustrated Hiruzen sighed heavily. "I think that should be enough for now, Takahashi. Bring the rest to my office. I will see to those, later."

Takahashi's sight was slightly impaired by the large pile of paper right in front of his eyes and he nearly bumped against a wall. Asami giggled mischievously about her fellow shinobi's misfortune. Schadenfreude was wonderful.

Anko took the lead. "I have brought you Asami as ordered, Hokage-sama." She glanced at her diminutive and more than troublesome charge.

hiruzen smiled, pleased. "Ah, thank you, Anko. By the way, I hope you two didn't experience any significant problems on your way here. Tell me, did you?"

Anko gave her younger partner in crime a sidewards glance in an act of mutual understanding. Asami answered innocently," As far as I know, no."

...

...

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Is that true?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. We didn't "experience" any difficulties which might be described as a problem."

Invigorated by the good news and his tobacco, Hiruzen chewed on his wooden pipe. "I am pleased to hear this." He really was. After all, powerful pubescent ninja were always a source of constant worry. Luckily, most of these prodigies were quite mature considering their age and primarily emotionally stable.

Imagine what could have happened if someone like Asami, Kakashi or Itachi had decided to run amok. The consequences could have been dire.

A cold shiver run down his aged spine. Hiruzen spoke to the waiting girl," Anyway, thank you, Anko. You are dismissed." Anko departed and Asami was left alone.

Asami turned her little head towards Hiruzen. He addressed her sweetly with his typical smile," Please, take a seat. I think we have much to discuss."

* * *

 **━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━**

* * *

Asami took a seat without hesitation, confronting the Hokage with her folded hands. "And what exactly do we have to discuss, Hokage-sama?"

He was breathing out a cloud of smoke. "I think you know precisely what I mean."

"No, I don't." Her sceptical eyebrow shot distinctively upwards. No, she didn't. She was much, but she was not a mind reader. So what were they supposed to discuss?

That she was keeping secret that she was an Uchiha? That she was planning on running for Hokage? That Danzo was still cheerfully as ever scheming behind Hiruzen's back? That she had frequently broken into Konoha's secret archives and borrowed the contents of a few scrolls on an involuntary basis? The security was quite frankly a joke.

Hiruzen laughed. "You will see soon. Firstly, I have to congratulate you on making it through the preliminaries. If you present yourself well in the tournament, Asami, you could potentially advance to the rank of Chunin."

Chunin? Was that a joke?

"Sure, sure. However, with all due respect, you are right now only half as funny as you think you are, Hokage-sama." The sarcasm in her voice was thick.

"Really?" Hiruzen didn't believe her, but Asami nodded silently, resisting the tempting offer to roll her eyes.

"Ahem, anyway, let us talk about more important matters."

"And that would be?"

"Does the name Orochimaru ring any bells?" the moment he asked, her muscles tensed up slightly. Did he knew? And if, how much did Hiruzen knew?

"Hmmmm, Orochimaru, Orochimaru, Orochimaru. Not really, but the name seems to be familiar to me for some reason." She stroked her imaginary beard.

Hiruzen furrowed an eyebrow and interrupted Asami who tended as usual to be less truthful than she should. "Strange, strange, and I thought you knew something of my former student. Especially, after your encounter with him today."

Asami focused her eyes on Hiruzen. So the secretive route was apparently blocked. He knew too much. "Hmm, today you say? That could very well be. But where do you have this information from?"

The Hokage had a further huff on his beloved pipe. "Compared to you, Kakashi was certainly more forthcoming about what happened."

"Ah, so it is from him. And what did he tell you?" Asami was curious.

"Not a lot. As you might know, Kakashi tends to be rather monosyllabic, but what he said was nevertheless interesting."

"He was quite "surprised" by your performance. Your overall capabilities. And the fact that you had the courage to face Orochimaru alone without fear, without doubt, without even flinching in the slightest."

In most cases, I would have to scold the foolish shinobi who tempted fate by fighting him. I can personally attest that my former student isn't someone to be taken lightly." He wasn't and Hiruzen doubted that he would stand a chance against Orochimaru in a direct fight. In his prime perhaps, but not anymore. And it greatly disconcerted Hiruzen.

"Your case, Asami, is different, however." Asami listened attentively. "Do you think you are able to defeat Orochimaru in combat?"

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Why should be that important, though?" Asami furrowed an eyebrow.

The old man leaned further back in his seat. "You probably don't know, but Konoha is currently facing a major crisis. I am still not one hundred percent sure, but I suspect that Orochimaru together with Sunagakure is planning to attack Konoha during the final round of the Chunin exams." This was truly interesting. So he was preparing an invasion, a daring move.

Hiruzen focused his eyes on Asami. "And I would be less worried, if I knew that the village can call upon someone reliable and powerful enough to stop this threat should I fall."

...

...

She was slowly breathing in and out while the seconds passed. Asami waited before she decided to answer his question. "You see, Hokage-sama, this is a difficult question to answer. Strength and power tend to be relative, they're not absolute concepts and victory is never assured. But in general, yes, I should be… No, I am definitely able to defeat him."

Hiruzen folded his hands together and studied the girl in front of him carefully. Was Asami the possible solution to Konoha's problem? "Thank you for your insights, Asami. You may go now." Hiruzen smiled, but it wasn't a happy one. His smile was that of an old man on whose shoulders the fate of an entire village rested.

Asami stood up and left the office, her steps deliberate as ever.

The door closed and Hiruzen was contemplating. A single document was still lying in front of him. A single document that waited only to be presented to the village council for confirmation. He stared at the letter time and time again and was still unsure whether this was the right thing to do. Was she the right candidate for this? Could she be trusted with this degree of responsibility?

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The grass was slowly growing under her watchful crimson eyes and was fundamentally her sole visitor aside from the lonely tree in whose comforting shadow Asami was currently residing next to a boulder that almost killed her, but only almost. The rock clearly failed in its feeble attempt to murder her. As if a humble stone could kill her.

Unsurprisingly, Asami was responsible for the debris, or rather her ballistic tests were responsible for it. She had put a tiny bit too much Chakra into her thunderbolt and thus accidentally pulverized the targeted boulder, which covered the entire training ground in a rain of falling debris. Perhaps, she needed some kind of umbrella to protect her precious head?

Asami prepared the next iteration of her experiment. This time it was, lightning vs spaced armour. She searched for a further boulder. And luckily, she didn't have to invest much time in finding a suitable candidate as area 51 was a target-rich environment.

Asami focused her eyes on a massive rock. On one side, there was a series of consecutive Chakra barriers shielding the rock.

And on the other side, there was a very angry-looking high voltage sphere. The wild currents formed a small corona around their small sun. The lightning was waiting to be discharged, which Asami did. Hopefully, she hadn't used again too much Chakra.

Asami nodded and the lightning shot forwards reaching its destination in a fraction of a second, but not from Asami's perspective. Her world was going slower.

with her Sharingan, she lived in her own time, in her own little world apart from the rest. Whether another Uchiha ever thought the same way? Maybe this was the reason she received the Sharingan to begin with. So big was the universe and the chances that she would be born with a Sharingan were so incredibly microscopic, but it nevertheless happened. The Sharingan chose her.

Propelled by her Chakra, her lightning moved forward, pushing the air aside the air in its burning wrath.

Her lightning bolt connected and pierced the first barrier with apparent ease. The shield was shattered like glass into tiny little shards. The lightning broke through the second barrier, and the third one. The fourth and the fifth didn't offer any significant resistance, but she observed what she was looking for and a smile surfaced on Asami's face.

The ionized stream began to tumble more and more with every penetrated barrier. Each shield deflected the projectile further and her thunderbolt began to disintegrate after having spent most of its energy. The shields had won out, eight of ten were penetrated, but the ninth barrier stood firm.

Asami snapped her fingers and her last two purple barriers disappeared. This time she would try out composite armour, multiple layers of Chakra with different grades of thickness and hardness. The results would be certainly interesting.

Satisfied with the previous performance, Asami was about to set up the next test series, but she was interrupted by an unexpected newcomer. Someone unknown invaded her perimeter.

Asami rose from her comfortable sitting position and approached the young Chunin, whom she didn't recognize.

The Chunin kept stared at the ground. He waited for her to speak while kneeling on the soft earth.

Asami smiled genuinely and finally dedicated her full attention to the kneeling Chunin. A pleasant smile welcomed the boy," So, who is calling for me today?"

The Chunin looked up and ignored her question for the time being, "Are you Minami Asami?"

"Yes, I am. The one and only, in fact." Asami furrowed an eyebrow, hoping that she didn't have some sort of evil twin sister. "But I fail to see why that should matter?"

The Chunin extracted a standard scroll from his leather pouch. "I have been ordered by the Hokage to deliver this scroll to the addressee, personally. And that would be you."

He presented Asami the scroll and she examined it. The official seal of the Hokage was impressed upon it. That was ... interesting. This was not the standard Konoha seal, but the seal was used for really important documents. Asami took possession of the scroll and turned her attention to the present Chunin.

"I think that should suffice. Thank you ..."

"Mashiro. Yamanaka Mashiro", he answered, clearly unused to being asked for his name. Obviously, his name would be forgotten soon afterward.

Asami beamed contently at him. "Once again, thank you for your services, Mashiro. You are dismissed."

The Yamanaka disappeared and Asami finally opened the sealed roll to disclose its secrets. Asami browsed through the inconspicuous opening lines.

"The following document may contain privileged and confidential information... if you are not the designated addressee ... you would be well advised to destroy the scroll and notify ... any unauthorized act of publication or the informing of third parties about the contents ... severe consequences ... liable to prosecution by the competent Konohagakure authorities."

Asami went through the document word for word until she stumbled over the relevant paragraphs right at the end.

"In consideration of your past successes and indubitable achievements in service of Konohagakure,

we, the Konohagakure Council, in our function as the Supreme High Command of the Konohagakure Armed Forces,

composed of

the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen,

Councilor, Shimura Danzo,

Councilor, Mitokado Homura,

Councilor, Utatane Koharu,

Councilor, Chief of Staff of the Army Nara Shikaku,

Councilor, Chief of Staff of the ANBU Aburame Ichiyo,

Councilor, Chief of Staff of the Office of Ninja Intelligence Yamanaka Inoichi,

has made the following decision

on the recommendation of the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen in his function as the Supreme Commander of the Konohagakure Armed Forces,

to promote you, Colonel Minami Asami, with immediate effect, unless opposed by you in person within a reasonable time frame, to the rank of General including your, honestly overdue, progression from Genin to Jonin."

Asami stopped briefly and smiled happily as rarely before. The scroll didn't end there, however.

"In the face of the current crisis of a potential invasion by foreign powers, it has been decided furthermore to task you in cooperation with General Nara Shikaku, with the primary defence of Konohagakure.

Signed

Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen

PS Independently from what has been mentioned above, your current mission assignments are still active."

"Hehehehe, ahahahahahahaha." Asami broke out in a burst of incredulous laughter which echoed across the empty training ground. Asami just couldn't believe her good fortune. Fate was apparently on her side and sometimes you had to be born under a very lucky star.

That was it? She finally answered to no one on the battlefield except for the Hokage. Thanks to this scroll, her plans for her political campaign and power grab made a huge step forward.

"In regard to said operation, you will henceforth act in the name of the Hokage himself and, we, the Konohagakure Council, will vest you temporarily with all necessary powers to accomplish your given task."

"We sincerely hope that our faith in you is well placed and you will not fall short of our expectations."

Her Susanoo had to wait for the time being. Asami grinned while rolling up the precious scroll which provided her with more or less unlimited power in the month to come, power a happy Asami could work with. Great things were expected of her and she would deliver accordingly. Asami had a village to defend.

Everything she required now was a nice map of Konoha. A few well-placed mobilisation orders. Asami needed cannon fodder … Ehm, shinobi for the front line, a lot of shinobi. And a lot of time. Plans had to be drafted and modified. Arghhh, so much to do and so little time.

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	32. Arc IV Chapter VII

**IV**

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 **Arc IV Chapter VII**

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As usual, two Chunin stood guard over Konoha's precious archives, or to be more precise sat guard. Behind their heavy desk, the two sentinels resided on their wooden chairs highly focused on their most important task, faithfully protecting Konoha's written secrets with their utmost dedication and possibly their lives. Although they clearly hoped that the latter would be never necessary in their lifetime.

Careful as ever, one of the Chunin in question, Fumihiko, examined every individual passing through their room. They diligently took notes in regards to their identity and their purpose before the persons in question was allowed to enter their little kingdom of paper and letters.

Whether you were a humble Genin or a mighty Jonin, nobody escaped the watchful eyes of these valiant guardians. At least, that was it how it was supposed to be in theory and according to the expectations of a certain girl. But as so many other things in life go, reality tended to differ from its more theoretical counterpart, and most often quite significantly.

Tick. The reality was that you were effectively confined or, depending on your perspective, exiled to a grey monotonic shithole whose walls were capable of stretching the very flow of time. To an interested observer it almost seemed as if time itself had capitulated to the reigning boredom and decided to avoid this specific room. Tack.

Tick. From an outside perspective, you knew that only mere seconds, hours, days had passed before your eyes. Tack. Nevertheless, you had the uncanny feeling that every time you left this place a small eternity had gone by, that you were effectively one step closer to infinity. Tick. Every time you left, you had aged interiorly a hundred years and you felt how a tiny bit of your soul died in you devoured by these grey walls. Tack. How a seemingly insignificant bit of your sanity was stolen away from you, only to be inevitably lost forever.

Tick. Therefore, the assignment didn't strike Fumihiko as the honour it was meant to be. Instead, he regarded the task of guarding the archives as some sort of divine punishment, perhaps the wrath of the Gods for something he had done in this life or a past. Maybe, this was the sign for him to turn religion and start to pray for his future salvation? Tack.

Tick. Basically, he would do anything to get out of here after having served. How long had it been again? Not even six months had passed in this inescapable prison. That was, however, unlikely to happen soon and certainly not without external intervention. Fumihiko sighed and cursed his own fate while wondering that none of his predecessors had committed suicide yet by throwing themselves from the nearby Hokage Mountain. Perhaps they had what he didn't, superior mental strength? Tack.

Tick. Dammit, he was an accomplished, battlefield tested Chunin. One step away from being promoted to Jonin. But of course not. Instead he was now ordered to play the part of a lousy bureaucrat in the rear despite the fact that he hadn't been made for an office job. Tack.

Tick. In the background, time went along its solemn way, announced by a single annoying clock. Tack. He was sure he would throw the damned clock one day out from the nearest window, and the only question which remained was of when? Tick. Today? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Tack.

Enraged, Fumihiko turned a page of the book he was currently reading. From what he had heard, the Icha Icha series was apparently not bad. After all, he had nothing better to do all day instead of reading and patiently waiting for one of their rare visitors to arrive.

And best of all, in the majority of cases he and his partner Shinji didn't possess the necessary authority to check their papers because all these ANBU and shinobi entering as the majority of them outranked them by a wide margin.

And if you tried to check them nevertheless, then you earned yourself an arrangement of the most furious and angry stares in existence. The Hyuga were generally the worst in that regard. Or for example, this black-haired girl. The moment she entered, Fumihiko doubted his eyesight and thought that she was probably a Genin trying to sneak into the archives by pretending to be a member of ANBU, which wouldn't have been the first time. After all, you could buy these white masks almost everywhere and they weren't exactly expensive. So why not try? And there was no way that she could have already joined ANBU, right? Wrong.

Unfortunately, she was indeed an ANBU and even a high ranking one. The lass was a fucking was that possible? She was already higher on the ladder than he could ever dream of, and she was freaking twelve! Twelve! In the meanwhile, he was still stuck here with his 25 years among this faceless rank and file. Dammit, the world was unfair.

A very vivacious discussion with a little girl later, Fumihiko decided that he would never challenge her ever again. The girl who was far, far, far, far too dangerous for his liking. His instincts told him to slip away from the little princess as far, far, far as humanly possible, because the girl was scary and her eyes were as well.

Especially, after the girl had threatened them in a suave voice," I can assure you gentlemen that the next time something like this happens, I will personally ensure that you both will be deported to the most godforsaken outpost at the northern border possible.

A hopeless hole of coldness with never ending darkness where your miserable existences will yearn for every single ray of warming sunlight. While the icy winds will slowly freeze your numb bodies to death until I can use them as substitutes for my ice cubes in my Cuba Libre during summer.

A place of infinite despair, compared to which your distant joyful memories of this room here will appear as a never ending vacation in Yugakure. So, do you let me pass now?"

And somewhere in the corner of his mind, Fumihiko suddenly started to reconsider everything. Perhaps his present job was not necessarily the worst one possible to have. Always look on the bright side of life. And the pay was quite good too. His working environment was calm and less dangerous compared with many others in his past. And he had a very pleasant co-worker. He had a great deal of official and unofficial free time than ever before, and paid vacation days to boot.

Needless to say, after a brief moment of eye contact with her, he and Shinji let the devil in black pass immediately. They weren't mad and starting a fight with the black-hearted princess was one of the last things they needed. Fumihiko turned the page.

Not to mention, he slightly feared her, albeit Fumihiko would never admit that he was honestly scared of a little girl, because he was a grown and mature man. And he didn't have any kind of nightmares about her once per week. And in his dreams he didn't meet her in some deserted alley beneath a moonless night. No, no, no.

His body wasn't unable to move, to run, to escape. He didn't scream because nobody heard his cries. He didn't stare into a pair of blood stained eyes hidden behind a pure white mask. She didn't take her mask off to display proudly pointed canines. And the smiling girl didn't wait to sink her fangs into his unprotected neck, to suck his entire blood o...

Stop, stop, stop. Seriously, he should really stop reading these vampire novels. They didn't help maintain his mental constitution at all and they caused him only a variety of strange thoughts. Nevertheless, the girl was still scary, *shiver*.

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Fumihiko turned a further page of his book and spoke," Shinji, do you think we will ever get out of here?" He still heard the irritating clock in the background, stupid clock.

Armed with a pencil and a newspaper, the other Chunin was engaged in a valiant fight against the daily shinobi crossword. And apparently was highly focused on his current task," Emmm, ummmm, emm. Boah, I don't know. Maybe one day."

"Fumihiko, have you an idea? I have been brooding already for half an hour over two words. The first, horizontal, eight letters, at the beginning there's an A and at the end an I. The clues are: criminal underground organisation composed of S-rank missing-nin and dawn. And the second, vertical, ten letters, nickname of an enigmatic S-class Kunoichi", Shinji asked, scratching his head.

"Hmmmm, give me the crossword for a moment.", Fumihiko closed his book and grabbed the newspaper from his companion. He scanned the columns and waited for the flash of inspiration to occur, which never arrived, though.

"Ummm, difficult. A, A, Ak, Aka..." He tried to crack the first nut with moderate success, but he was interrupted. Someone opened the door and entered the room, a rare sight in the archives.

Fumihiko turned his attention to the newcomer, a black haired girl wearing an accordingly black kimono. He had the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. Her stature was somehow similar, her style of clothing too. But some crucial detail was missing. Bah, he shouldn't worry too much.

While he was contemplating about the stranger's identity, the girl strolled towards the second door completely ignoring the reception bravely manned by him and Shinji. Hey, she couldn't do that, could she?

Fumihiko was irritated and called her out," Hey, where do you think you're going, kid? The public library is the other way. Right down the stairs and then go down the corridor to your left where you'll find the big library sign. You can't miss it."

The girl stopped abruptly. After a moment of brief hesitation, she spun around her axis and revealed a pair of subtly narrowed black eyes. Was she angry? Her lips formed a benevolent smile while the girl addressed him in a rather demanding tone, which was quite surprising as it didn't really correspond with her apparent age," I beg your pardon, because I think I have misheard you just now. So, can you repeat it?"

Fumihiko's blood froze in his veins as he sensed two punctures appearing on his neck and an ominous feeling crept up his spine. Nevertheless, he gathered his remaining courage and hoped that his instincts erred. "Ehm, uhm, em, what I meant to say was that you are walking in the wrong direction because down there are the archives." He pointed towards the second door at the end of the corridor.

"I am well aware of that. So, what is the problem then?" The girl gave him an impatient stare, one that indicated to him that he was quickly running out of time.

Fumihiko scratched his head visibly uncomfortable with this situation, her distinctive speech pattern reminded him of someone specifically. Nah, it couldn't be. "Well, only Jonin and shinobi with the required authority are allowed to enter the archives. Therefore, we can't let you pass, sadly." Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, please don't hit me...

"Really? And why?" She furrowed an eyebrow.

Why did he have the feeling that he was currently standing on very thin ice? Or was this just his imagination?

"Without being offensive, aren't you a bit too young to be taken for a Jonin? And shouldn't a dutiful Kunoichi wear her Hitai-ate all the time? Don't they teach you anything at the academy these days?" he reprimanded her and shook his head. Ah, the youth today.

"Ahehehehehe, true, true. I indeed don't wear this piece of scrap metal as I normally don't need it."

"However, couldn't it be possible that you have someone considerably higher ranking standing in front of you, shinobi", the girl surprised Fumihiko with a characteristic giggle he had heard before and had never truly forgotten.

Fumihiko blinked once, twice, and a third time to be sure. No, no, no, no, he recognized the girl's memorable giggling and his pupils widened.

"Oooooooooohhhhh shit, it's her." She wasn't recognizable without her ANBU mask. Okay, don't panic Fumihiko, don't panic. Stay calm and focused… He realised too late that he had slipped up. He said what he thought aloud. Panic, panic, everything is lost, abandon the sinking ship, the war is over. Flee fool, run for your life. He panicked interiorly, unsure of what to do next. He remained calm as if nothing had happened.

Fumihiko shot up from his chair and stood upright, as straight as he never had in his entire life. Shinji hastily followed his example and dropped his newspaper on the floor.

Her lips smiled in a satisfied manner. "At ease. Albeit, one of you should mind his language in my presence." She looked amused at him. Fumihiko had given up already and began to accept the unpleasant fate which awaited him. He was about to meet the northern border soon.

But perhaps there was still hope. He interrupted the girl who had already continued to walk," Ahem, Captain."

"Yes?" She awaited a reply.

"Emmm, how should I put it, ummm, emmm. "He carefully deliberated his words. Words which could be crucial for securing his continuous survival.

"Could you please hurry up and get to the point? Because I don't have all day", she encouraged him, slightly annoyed.

"Will, eh, you send, eh, us to the northern border?" Fumihiko stumbled over every single word.

"Eh, what?" The girl tilted her head because she was confused.

"I mean that hopeless hole of cold with never ending darkness where our miserable existences will yearn for every single ray of warming sunlight", he rephrased his question.

" Aaaaaaaah, that." Realisation struck the apparently innocent girl. "Naah, did I really say something like that? Are you sure of this?"

Shinji and Fumihiko looked into each other's eyes briefly and nodded strongly. They clearly remembered her petrifying stare, and her voice had filled them with a profound sense of dread.

But the girl dismissed their concerns without a second thought. "Ah, don't worry about such a bagatelle, guys. If I meant every threat seriously that I have ever spoken, then the village would have ran out of shinobi ages ago."

The girl smiled "And according to what I know, Konoha neither has a border outpost in the north, nor has one ever existed to begin with. But this mysterious outpost in the middle of nowhere story does help enormously when it comes to convincing stubborn Chunin to let me pass."

It was a bluff, just a bluff. Feeling an invisible weight dropping away from his heavy heart, a relieved Fumihiko sat down on his chair. Fate was generous to him and he was safe, for now at least.

"Anyway, I hope I can trust in your discretion as ever. So, if someone asks, I have never been here and you have seen nobody today, right?" She closed her eyes and beamed happily. Her request wasn't particularly difficult, considering the fact that they didn't even have her name. Until today they had no idea of who she was despite her frequently visiting the archives, only that she came and went as she pleased. To the point where Fumihiko assumed that she was in truth a phantom haunting this building. Nah, such would be ludicrous.

Both Chunin indicated their acceptance by a simple nod.

"Excellent." Their visitor disappeared behind heavy iron doors. Hopefully, they would not meet her ever again.

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Asami was marching down the corridors while grumbling darkly and passing various dusty shelves and a few annoying ANBU guard posts. And every time she was challenged. And every time she had to tell them that they were better advised, in the majority of the cases expressis verbis, to fuck off. Otherwise, well, otherwise something very unpleasant could happen to them.

Dammit, she was currently one of the highest ranking shinobi in the entire village, only second to the Hokage himself. And nevertheless, she couldn't get past a few ANBU without being stopped because of her age. You see, no one, absolutely no one took her seriously.

Instead, Asami received a series of mostly patronising glances. But In the end, she was always the last to laugh. And it didn't help at all that she was relatively short, albeit she was sure that she would experience a growth spurt soon, hopefully.

Asami continued her march with newfound vigour. She had work to do. The girl approached a certain room, the room which were used to store the secret documents she was after. Information was needed as she had to prepare herself for the upcoming meeting with Shikaku. After all, she couldn't turn up with empty hands?

She needed a battle plan. An according contingency plan. And a contingency plan for the contingency plan.

Therefore, she required a reliable map of Konoha and a few other documents she was interested in and had now access to thanks to her promotion. Particularly, a specific investigation report and the according council protocols.

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The old enemy had returned and Asami faced the ancient foe in a new form. The appearance of this cunning opponent may change, but not his vicious and merciless nature.

His current iteration was an unnecessarily high bookshelf, an evil bookshelf she might add. Composed of evil wood and even more evil nails, vile traitors which were sabotaging her efforts. The documents were unfortunately placed on the highest shelf and she couldn't reach them.

Asami was standing on her tiptoes and waved desperately with her arms. Nevertheless, she was unable to reach the documents in the upper shelf. They were so close but yet so very far. She was just too short, dammit. And there was no chair around to help her. Great, really great.

Furthermore, it was beneath her dignity to jump like an ordinary fool. Asami jumped, but her attempts in reaching for the sky bore little fruit. She was still too short.

The girl backed off and contemplated carefully about her next move. The shelf may have won this battle but not the war. Perhaps she should reduce its height by producing a bit of firewood for the coming winter? Nobody should miss it anyway. Nobody important at least.

Asami crossed her arms and stroked her chin with the proficiency of the intellectual she was. Unconsciously to her, her Susanoo had already materialized sensing her destructive intentions. But instead of shredding the cursed shelf into microscopically tiny pieces, the headless skeleton imitated her thinking pose and brooded too about their various options.

Asami decided against demolishing the poor shelf and ordered her helpful servant to construct a siege ramp. Victory would be hers! The Susanoo grabbed the various books and built a staircase.

After her construction works had been finished, a happy girl stepped up the stairs and laid her hands on the scrolls. Underneath a thick layer of dust, shimmered a few blach letters which had been almost forgotten. Bingo.

She blew off the dust and revealed the title on the front page. Asami smiled. It was the right scroll. "A - 1562 - S, ANBU report. Analysis of the Uchiha clan massacre."

She was always interested in how it was possible that the clan district and the police station were apparently attacked simultaneously by the same person. Itachi was good, but even his capabilities were limited. Someone helped him that night and the crucial question was who.

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The water fell lightly on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, not caring about the cursed ground they stood on. It was raining in this darker than usual night as the black clouds concealed the melancholic sky which had opened its gates. Amid the calming concert of droplets which poured down to the earth, a hooded figure moved through solemn streets. Interiorly delighted about the wonderful weather, a little black riding hood marched through the storm. Armed with an umbrella, she playfully strolled on the empty road which was only hers.

An observer might have wondered what the girl's reason was for waltzing around the place in the pouring rain which seemed to impede her motivation less than someone could expect.

Asami l left the ruins sullied in blood behind her. She approached the venerable shrine and its unused gates. The figure in black recited like someone who knew more than she was supposed to.

"Numerous corpses have been found in the vicinity of the Naka Shrine. In this regard, we assume that the Uchiha in question attempted to set up some kind of defensive perimeter around the building."

Asami applied a little force but the portals yielded nevertheless easily, as if they had awaited her advent, how amusing. The gates opened and presented her with a tenebrous lifeless hall. But under her hood, her luminescent crimson eyes saw through the veil of darkness and knew their path lying in front of them.

"Nevertheless, their opposition was apparently easily overcome and all Uchiha were slaughtered in a matter of minutes. It should be noted that the recovered bodies, like in the majority of cases, were missing their eyes which further solidifies the above stated thesis that our unconfirmed attacker primarily tried to recuperate as many Sharingan as possible."

Asami entered and at her command the various torches lit up joyfully. After so many years, they sprang to life again and her white fire bathed the room in a light never seen before. Enlightened by her blazing flames, Asami navigated towards a certain tatami mat.

"Furthermore, the dispatched ANBU Squad, under the leadership of Major Terada Murai, discovered an assumed entrance to a secret room. Beneath the seventh tatami mat, we encountered a sealing stone whose purpose is still unknown."

Asami shoved the aged mat aside and kneeled down to the stone. Her hands touched the cold surface while her red irises lingered on the painted Sharingan. "They tried to breach the seal placed upon the stone to no avail. Despite several attempts, the seal didn't show any signs of weakening and as suggested by a Fuinjutsu specialist, is highly likely that a Sharingan is required to open it."

Asami stared at the seal which didn't want to react to her at all. She was growing more irritated with every second passing and the stupid stone would soon experience her wrath. Around her, the air changed.

Static ripples of electricity started to flicker. The purple arcs were angry, calling for violent action. Asami wasn't in a mood to negotiate with the stone. " Move or crumble under my might!"

The moment Asami decided to test her assumption that the uncooperative stone stood little chance against her lightning plasma cutter, the stone plate swiftly moved aside, frightened by her aura.

Asami chuckled in a satisfied way," See, voila. " Just a slight incentive was necessary and the stone moved.

Asami stepped down into the underground complex without any sort of lighting, which was the main reason why she tripped and fell down the stairs. Luckily, Asami landed softly on her butt.

" F******************************* Aargh, stupid shinobi, these imbecilic cretins, and fucking stupid architect." She had excellent night sight thanks to her Sharingan, but even she could see nothing with her Mangekyo in total subterranean darkness.

Asami produced a purple flame in her palm and proceeded. What greeted her at the end of the grey tunnel was a tablet, a simple boring stone tablet. Or so she thought initially. Asami was disappointed by her reward and was about to leave the place altogether. But she noticed something strange about the tablet. The text on it glowed in a bright blue akin to pure Chakra. The passages were written with a person's Chakra.

She closed the distance and deciphered the text before her. With every sentence, her eyebrow rose further. Disappointment turned into mild interest. Interest transformed into burning curiosity. And nescient curiosity morphed into manic giggling.

Asami knew that the Sharingan was an incredibly mighty instrument of her will. But what was she reading here, however, was well beyond her wildest imaginations. If the stone tablet could be trusted, then the Sharingan practically held the key to absolute power.

Granted, she would never get her hands on the Eternal Mangekyo without a sibling. Furthermore, she had been warned about her impending blindness, which wasn't a serious problem though. She had been already fighting against the noticeable deterioration of her precious Mangekyo since a while. But according to the tablet, her eyes were capable of controlling the tailed beasts, impossible as it might sound.

Asami murmured, gliding with her fingers over the tablet," Seeking stability, one god was divided into Yin and Yang, these opposing two acting together obtain all things in creation. If it was so easy."

She had skipped over the infantile nonsense called Ninshu about peace and understanding. This self-proclaimed sage was neither wise nor knowledgeable, but merely rich in years and probably senile. Sage of Six Paths ... what a joke.

Aside from nice storytelling, the short class in Uchiha clan history was of little practical use to her, albeit entertaining. A Goddess named Kaguya. An over-dimensioned tree which had to be cut down. A classical forbidden fruit of knowledge. The moon which was the body of the sealed Jubi and the Rikudo Sennin who was able to create a satellite with the size of a planetoid.

Two fellow brothers who fought each other for reasons of succession and her progenitor losing, how disappointing, she would have surely won in Indra's stead and not failed at a simple fratricide.

"When someone who possesses the power of Saṃsara approaches the moon, an eye will open what is reflected on the moon to grant the eternal dream." Her Mangekyo rested on this last part, curious what these words meant.

Eventually, Asami left the secret chamber and the stone tablet. The last sentence words glimmered in a different, dark black Chakra. It was almost as if the passage had been had been added to the tablet by someone else and not the original author.

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	33. Arc V Chapter I

**V**

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 **Arc V Chapter I**

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Once again, Konoha's famed Jonin Commander and his normally prolific mind were plagued by a treacherous hangover. A hangover that he couldn't need at the moment at all, because he was supposed to meet up with a freshly promoted Kunoichi and "supervise" her actions, what a drag, he now was officially a tutor for A... What was her name again?

Shikaku couldn't remember despite the fact that he read it a moment ago, really a few seconds ago, a bit embarrassing, right? He didn't worry too much though as he was convinced that the name should come to him soon, probably.

While Shikaku reflected on the latter's identity, he laid his head sidewards on his wooden office desk. Away from the window and the annoying morning sun. As wonderful as the view of the rising sun normally might be, in his present condition the aggressive rays only worsened his migraine, damn sun.

With his heavy head resting on soft paper, which made for such a wonderful cushion in his opinion, albeit a bit stiff but he wasn't too choosy at the moment.

Shikaku sensed the sleepiness slowly obscuring his mind as he started to blank out for brief moments, once, twice and so.

A short dull sound raced through the room, as if something wooden had been placed upon the floor. He had more pressing issues though, therefore he ignored the sound which could have come from one the floors above too.

He could really need some well-earned sleep now. Yesterday was a long night after all. Right, a long night. His eyelids sunk and he was taken away into the lands of dreams, almost.

The experienced fought himself back and banished the thoughts of peaceful, relaxing slumber. His eyelids attempted to close themselves but Shikaku denied their request with the sheer power of his will again. A not so sober Shikaku murmured so some unintelligible gibberish in a yawning attempt to himself wake," Huahhhh, get a grip of yourself, Shikaku. The village still needs you."

He couldn't allow himself to doze off now, that would be way unprofessional and not his style, and the set meeting was quite important too. In the end, it could be the fate of the village they were about to talk about. In conclusion, something that he should miss under no circumstances.

He tried to get himself up but he didn't succeed so far. As a consequence, his still head rested on the pile of documents feeling the residual alcohol in his blood.

"Damn Inoichi and his rounds", ravaged by a strong headache, he cursed at his friend who was directly responsible for his current labile state. Once again his drinking habits caused him a lot of unnecessary trouble. As far as Shikaku recalled, without the support of his companion alcohol, he would be likely not even here to begin with.

Hadn't he, Inoichi and Choza ordered too much, then they both wouldn't have turned up semi-comatose to the Council meeting next day. Then he would have actually bothered to read what the Hokage had proposed instead of desperately trying to keep himself conscious. Then they both wouldn't have acted that and simply waved the proposal through in the hope that the session would be quickly over then and they could get finally home afterwards. Perhaps, he should have abstained during the final vote like Homura and Koharu. Yeah, that would have been the better choice.

Aargh, why couldn't he have any luck. Why had it to be such an important decision that had slipped under his radar, one which had a direct impact on him too. The infallible master strategist face palmed annoyed by his mistake.

Why, couldn't have passed something completely inconspicuous, something like for example the brightness of streetlights at night, building regulations, pension entitlements for Konoha shinobi or whatever.

Shikaku sighed loudly. He could complain as much as he wanted, there was nothing he was able to do in his situation. Now he was forced to put up with Asami, exactly that was her name, how could he forget the girl, no matter what. A Kunoichi that had been vested with unusual amounts of power aside from being "immensely strong", whatever that meant in her ANBU dossier.

A Kunoichi who was from what he read quite "lively" in her ways to put it mildly, often prone to insubordination and suspected of being a tiny bit mentally unstable, but which S-class shinobi wasn't a semi nutcase. And based on her character, she was likely one of the war hawk faction, as if the permanent troublemaker Danzo alone wouldn't have been sufficient in that regard. Shikaku rolled his eyes in pure annoyance. Shikaku already foresaw that this was going to be extremely funny, albeit he shouldn't automatically hope for the worst. He had never met her personally and shouldn't thus too quick to judge her. And who knew

Strangely enough, the old geezer opposed her nomination firmly, almost fanatically. For whatever reason, he didn't trust her at all. The old man seemed to believe that her selection would put the fate of the entire village at risk, would spell doom for everyone in Konoha and vicinity, which was probably a bit of a stretch. Not to mention, nobody knew what was going on in Danzo's paranoid mind anyway, or at least Shikaku had no idea what the man was thinking most of the times.

As always, he probably withheld some kind of important information that he wasn't too eager to share with anyone until it was again too late and everything was already fucked up beyond relief. Expect for his preferred standard and usually counterproductive "kill the witnesses and leave no one alive, especially the children" approach. In conclusion, a typical Danzo, after him the deluge and nobody else. The only question was what he knew this time.

"Huaaahhhhh", Shikaku yawned repeatedly and stared disinterestedly at the door waiting for his dear guest to make her entrance, wasn't she supposed to be already here? A tired Shikaku turned his head but the wise tactician regretted his tactical decision immediately, he had forgotten about a certain star.

Surprised by the beaming sunlight, his eyes had to surrender to the onslaught of maligned brightness that flooded his blinded pupils. Once he cursed at the object of his short term hatred," Damn sun."

In a sort of last stand against the unwished invader, Shikaku used his hands to protect his eyes by blocking the enemy. His strategy didn't work out to well and he was tempted to return his cranium to its former position. However, he didn't. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the brightness and a startled Shikaku began to see clearer.

Amid the brilliant light the man recognized something fleeting and unintelligible, he noticed the blurred contours of a person sitting there. The dazzling light of the dawning sun cloaked the figure in a wonderful work of coloured light that broke around her like a prism, albeit the could be his vision playing a trick on him. The shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet encapsulated her in an effort to capture this impression in the fleeting moment. However, in the end they betrayed her and gave away her identity.

Leisurely leaning on a chair, throned a girl who inspected her polished nails boredly. Bah, what a show-off, although she better at it than most of the people he met.

The moment she was found out, her face smiled at him politely and initiated in an almost melodic intonation, was she trying to sing? "Shikaku, I am personally curious. Tell me what will we do with a drunken Jonin early in the morning?"

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Hearing these words, Shikaku's mind sprang back into action awakened, or reactivated from his tempting slumber, albeit it would take some time until he was fully operational again. And slightly worried by the fact that had she succeeded in sneaking up to him without him noticing? Granted, he might be not in his best condition, but he should have sensed her anyway. How did she come in? It couldn't be the front door, otherwise he would have heard it. The window? No that should have been closed all the time. And as far as he knew the room didn't have any secret entrances. So, how did she break in?

Shikaku Commander brought himself upwards and scrutinised the sitting girl. Black hairs, black eyes, fair skin and primarily she resembled the photo in her dossier. Yeah, it was definitely her.

Shikaku still engaged the remains of his alcohol driven delirium and couldn't crack any joke about his miserable constitution. In an apparent bad mood, Shikaku complaint," You should know that are you only half as funny as you might think."

She stared at him deliberating her words as if there had been going on some invisible battle between the two. A battle for intellectual dominance that would be decided in the minutes to come," Conceded, although that slightly hurts me. I have always regarded myself as quite funny contemporary who spices the lives of everybody around me."

Her tiny fingers touched her heart pressing the dark fabric of her cloth against her aching breast. He had admitted that Asami's enactment of the dying black swan was one of the better ones he had seen in his life. She appeared seriously offended by his statement.

She continued with a serious mien," However, that should still make me twice as funny as you are, Shikaku."

Shaking his hand, he dismissed her claim and focused on something else," Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"More important, how did you get in here? As far as I remember, I didn't see or hear you enter", interested, he looked across the room towards the large window.

"How did I get in here?", Asami stroked her chin while contemplating extraordinarily long about her answer," That is a rather difficult question. Can't you ask me something simpler?"

Difficult my ass. It was obvious that she tried to evade, but Shikaku kept on pushing and stared at her demanding an explanation.

The girl rolled her eyes briefly," If the locked-room mystery is ****that**** important to you, detective."

"Let us say, sneaking past a semi-drunken shinobi isn't particularly challenging, even when said person is the famed Jonin Commander of Konoha. A direct line of sight was everything I needed and the glass behind me was quite helpful too. And since my arrival, I have been waiting then wondering how long it would take you to notice my presence", she chuckled secretively knowing clearly more than she revealed.

"Emmm, right", Shikaku's left hand scratched his head in embarrassment, "why didn't you say anything, Asami?"

"Oh my, I couldn't disturb your very important power nap, could I, Shikaku? I hope you have slept well" his fellow shinobi smiled politely.

And furthermore, I hope that you had an interesting read at least, right? As far as I know I am quite special", Asami tilted her face sidewards wearing a smug expression. She looked towards the files directly in front of him, the one he used as an improvised pillow beforehand and now lay openly on his desk. The photo in her personal dossier was perfectly visible from her position.

"Ehehehehe", Shikaku laughed uneasily while one of his hands was occupied with the discreet task of letting the folder magically disappear by hastily shoving it into one of the drawers. Aargh, this was simply not his day, nothing worked, absolutely nothing.

The strategist tried to divert from the former topic by using a decoy," Ahem. Anyway, have you prepared anything for today? Any proposals? After all, we are here to discuss the defence of Konoha."

Clearly, he didn't expect her to have anything concrete. Therefore, her answer came to him as a surprise," Yes, I have."

A startled Shikaku," Did you say "yes, I have"?"

"I repeat, yes, I have."

"You mean "yes" as in yes?"

Asami sighed annoyed," Yes." The conjured a pack of stapled papers from the inside of her kimono and passed it to the sitting Nara.

Shikaku accepted the package and looked briefly through initial pages in his hand. Page for page he advanced until deposing on his desk. Concluding his inspection, the tactician addressed the unspoken question," Case Yellow. What is that, Asami? And why of all things "yellow"?"

After having returned to her sitting position," Well, to respond your latter question. Considering the fact that we are likely to meet Sunagakure on the fields of honour, I thought I would be quite fitting to use yellow as an homage. You know sand, ergo yellow."

"Fair enough", he conceded accepting her leap of logic.

"And to answer the first part, isn't that obvious, Shikaku. This is merely what is going to win us the war against our first coalition. The manual to the play we will perform", her statement certainly didn't lack the necessary confidence. Asami was the Nike of Samothrace herself in human form laureating Konoha with the glorious wreath of victory.

The clan chief furrowed a doubting eyebrow while flipping through her plan with his right thumb, but the tactician was naturally patient and questioned the winged goddess politely," Win us the war, you say. Explain."

"I think we should still wait on my personal secretary who carries some material that is central to my explanation. However, I suppose we can already begin with the basics. Shikaku, do you know what a revolving door is?"

"Yes. But why should be a door relevant?" the mastermind wondered having no idea what had a revolving door had to do with winning a war. And since when did she have a secretary? The mysteries kept piling up in front of him thanks to the girl's arcane nature.

" I promise you, you will see", the girl chuckled sciently not trying to conceal in the slightest the cruel fate that would meet Konoha 's enemies, her enemies. There was nothing that would save them from now on, and she meant nothing.

Clad in her customary black garbs, Asami rose from the chair and moved to the bright window overlooking the village's lively streets. People, young and old commuting to their daily working places. Crowded by the curious masses of little children in the insatiable search of candies, Asami felt suddenly the urge to devour greedily something sweet, chocolate mousse or sinful caramel preferentially.

A lovely scene. In her opinion, almost worthy of her protection. It was unfortunate that she had to use it as the stage of her performance. Asami asked a clearly rhetorical question," Tell me, Shikaku, have you ever heard about the battle of annihilation?"

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""Join my cause and become part of my staff", she said."

"" Be my secretary", she said."

""It will be fun", she said."

"" See the world" she said. No, wait a moment. In all fairness, I dont think she said that", a lonely Fumihiko argued with himself.

"What the evil overlord in black didn't say was that I would see nothing but white and be her lackey for all sort of menial tasks", Fumihiko sighed in disappointment, albeit he was slightly exaggerating as usually. He regretted having accepted the pact with the devil instead of refusing this double-edged promotion, or should he call it a demotion. Whatever, he should always look on the bright side of life, or something similar.

The girl's official pack horse, Fumihiko carried four map scrolls on his back, two under his arms, a heavy pile of cellulose placed on both of his hands, which once again affirmed his inner sentiment that he didn't subscribe to this kind of work.

While desperately trying to avoid hitting any objects, staircases and the various doors on his way were the worst enemy, not to mention the masses of careless Genin running through the floors, he navigated through the Hokage tower searching for the room No. 310…? Emmm, which room was it again? Which number did Asami give him again? He had written it down somewhere for this, but that help him much as he had his hands full at the moment. Fortunately, fate had mercy on Fumihiko and the shinobi received a flash of inspiration, it was 3108.

Satisfied with his success, Fumihiko continued his heroic journey in service of Konoha, after all his work was of utmost importance and indispensable, for Hokage and village, or that was what Asami told him at least.

"3103, 3104, 3105, 3106, 3107, 3108, 3109, 3110, 3111, 301…", while committed to his thoughts, Fumihiko counted and walked nevertheless past his intended target. But he quickly corrected his error and nobody saw him anyway.

He opened the door, which was for obvious reasons more difficult than it might seem. Accomplishing an incomparable gymnastic feat, an overloaded Fumihiko entered the room and what he saw, no rather what he heard surprised the observing shinobi. The atmosphere was quite tense.

In opposition, sat the two forces of nature, unyielding, unflinching, uncompromising. As black eyes met black eyes, as intellect met intellect, Asami and Shikaku were locked in a seemingly never-ending staring contest.

Eventually, Asami broke the ice but not the eye contact," Huh, so you are rejecting my ideas?"

Her frustration was audible and Shikaku sighed in admission while trying to deescalate," Not exactly. Ummm, it is more like I am not really convinced by your idea, Asami."

However, his word fell on deaf ears of an annoyed girl," Oh, "not convinced". So, what should we do, Captain Darling? I am curious. What is your brilliant plan to ensure final victory in the field, or is that classified information? Walking very slowly towards the enemy? Crush them by the sheer weight of our mass by throwing everything we have against them? How original. Or the classical sitting back and waiting to be caught totally off guard because actually doing something would be very unsporting on our part?"

The strategist ignored her furious diatribe and countered instead," You are misunderstanding me. I never said anything like this. I am only recommending that we should adopt a more defensive line."

Asami's face contorted," Contrary to your misguided beliefs, I am understanding your point of view very well. There is only a tiny little flaw in your defensive battle plan, Shikaku." Asami connected her thumb and forefinger to indicate him the seize of his error.

"And that is?"

The girl replied without the barest hint of friendliness, her discontent openly visible," With all due respect to your position and your experience, Shikaku, but the defensive operation you have proposed is utter bollocks."

Deep in thought, Shikaku remained silent behind his massive in the vain hope that the piece of furniture could protect him from this opponent he had never faced before. He stared at the girl interiorly deliberating and processing her statement.

As he was still standing and his heavy payload didn't diminish yet, Fumihiko decided to use this short truce before he was completely side-lined. And that he should better flee the scene quickly to not get caught in their crossfire.

" Ahem, I hope that I am not disturbing you both. I will simply leave all my stuff here", Fumihiko cleared his throat and pointed with his chin towards his carriage," and then take my le…"

Asami turned her smile into his direction and intercepted him though by interdicted his feeble attempt at escaping," That is not necessary, Fumihiko. Don't worry, you can stay here. As you might have heard, Shikaku Commander and I only had a civilised discussion about what could be the best course of action for Konoha. And apparently, we both seem to disagree on a variety of crucial points on the operational level." Her voice was audibly strained and he saw the nails of her fist slowly sinking into her pale skin, deeper and deeper.

Fortunately, nothing happened and Asami calmed down. She breathed in, and out, in, and out, until she regained composure," Anyway, Fumihiko, could you please roll out the map of Konoha for me?"

Fumihiko deposited the items on the floor and held two scroll in his hands," The small or the big one?"

A still annoyed Asami massaged her temples," The second one."

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Maybe, this approach would work better in persuading the pencil pushing backbencher Shikaku. Nevertheless, if push came to shove she could still deploy more coercive means of persuasion, namely my way or highway, thanks to the carte blanche the Hokage had given her.

Asami wandered across the office inspecting the giant map covering now the entire floor. The map depicted every single street, corner, house, Ramen Ichiraku and a dango shop for some inexplicable reasons. A truly strange map she had commandeered here in virtue of her almost unlimited powers. Nevertheless, it should suffice.

Returning to her seat, Asami drew her sword from the scabbard leaning to the chair. After all, she needed some kind of stick. And swords generally made for good pointy sticks, albeit their tips tended to be relatively sharp.

The girl marched back to her former position and let her blade glide along the wall guarding Konoha's outskirts, "easily" defendable and Shikaku's first choice for their line of defence," Then let us start to examine your proposed battle plan, Shikaku. In your opinion, we should deploy our forces along Konoha's walls to set up a defensive perimeter in order to protect the village's civilian population, am I correct?"

Shikaku furrowed a questioning eyebrow while following her fluid movements," Yes."

Despite her small stature, the girl's aura dominated, filled the empty office by itself. Asami pointed the sword towards a certain spot," Furthermore, we have decided to mass the bulk of our forces in the area around main gate, including a strong mobile reserve in the rear." Her sword circled around the intended staging area on the outer fringes.

"According to our assumptions, the main gate will be the point which the enemy will mount their main attack on, or some other point in the vicinity. Am I right?" Asami spun around in a pirouette-like fashion to confirm her further sentences.

Shikaku nodded and allowed the girl to continue, which she did," And now we come to decisive question. What is the problem with your plan, Shikaku? What is this flaw that I have told you about?"

Asami looked at the older shinobi without a hint of sarcasm or disrespect. It was an earnest question meant for an earnest man whose talents she recognized as perhaps on a par with hers.

He didn't reply however," I don't know what you mean, Asami? As I see it, we will successfully defend the village, repel the invasion…"

Asami interrupted him though, her words calm and sharp as Obsidian," That is exactly the problem. It is beyond doubt that we will achieve a decisive victory against Sunagakure and Otogakure. But what then? What will come afterwards?"

"Will Suna and Oto magically cease all hostilities?"

"No."

"Will the war end for no apparent reasons at all?"

"No."

"Will their forces lay down their arms and peacefully cease to exist?"

"No."

"Will we forget the betrayal of our closest ally? An ally who won't hesitate to kill you Shikaku, your loved ones, and all of us in cold blood."

"And once again, ****no.**** ", shrouded in her black attire, Asami stood there proudly her polished steel reflecting the incoming white light. He appearance granted her pauses a slightly eerie touch, a touch Shikaku wasn't able to deny as he clasped pensively his hands together. The girl laughed interiorly seeing how he slowly took her well-prepared bait.

"So what will come afterwards? I give you the answer. We will win the battle but not the war. And this is the problem. You, Shikaku, know how to gain a victory. However, you do not know how to capitalise on a victory."

"Surely, we won't lose anything, but we will also gain nothing. Instead, we only maintain the status quo without reaching a decisive outcome. If we repel them, the enemy will simply disengage and retreat. And with their forces still largely intact, Suna and Oto will continue the fight."

"In conclusion, if we fight defensively, we will achieve nothing besides an empty victory, a useless victory, a mutilated victory. It will be like after Kannabi bridge."

For the first time in her monologue, Shikaku looked up to the imposing figure Asami was, "Kannabi bridge?"

"Yes, Shikaku, Kannabi bridge", Asami started her history lesson.

"You know after that battle the tide of war turned in Konoha's favour. We had Iwa on their knees, ready to beg for peace. Kiri was in a similar state. Kumo wouldn't have surrendered, but alone it couldn't have stopped us. During the third shinobi war, total victory could have been easily in our hands if we had continued until the bitter end", Asami stretched out her left arm presenting her audience her pale palm which subsequently clenched to a fist.

"Instead, the Hokage unable to cope with the enormous losses of life lost his nerves and wasted this golden opportunity by suing for peace. Only one final push would have been necessary and the world could have been ours to take, Shikaku. But that unfortunately didn't happen and the rest is history."

Shikaku and Fumihiko stared both into her direction, bewildered and not trusting their ears. Did they hear right?

Asami dedicated herself again to her reliable iron," And in a similar fashion, we shouldn't waste the opportunity so graciously presented to us." And they wouldn't know what hit them when she was finished with them.

Asami stepped confidently into the centre of Konoha gripping firmly her sword," We know that Suna and Oto will attack due to a rather talkative snake. We know where they most likely will attack based on logic. And we know when they will attack, during the day of the Chunin exams. In short, we hold most of the cards. So let us use them accordingly and set up our trap instead of fighting a purely defensive battle. And this is point where Case Yellow comes into play."

Shikaku listened while he was still brooding over about what she said. Was Asami right? Had he misjudged the situation? Was his strategy inadequate?

"As explained before, we should give up the main gate and the adjacent areas altogether as they are not worthy of being defended. Instead, we organize an elastic defence along this line", her sword drew an arc reaching from one side of the village to the other.

"And now we come to the funny part", her words gained a cheerful colour," We don't try to repel the invasion and retake the lost territory. No, we steadily pull back our weakened centre allowing the Suna and Oto forces to advance further and further towards the village core while standing firm on both of our reinforced flanks. And like a revolving door our position will gradually reverse without them noticing. And the harder they push in their race against the time the stronger will be their backlash."

This was the point realisation struck Shikaku and he finally understood what Asami meant with the revolving door as well as the battle of annihilation, why didn't he see it sober despite it being clear as day? It was an encirclement.

His startled face looked down on the map and he mumbled without the smallest hint of a doubt," You want to encircle them?"

"What?" Asami interrupted her explanation of one of the most basic manoeuvres and turned towards the mumbling man.

He stared into her abyss-like eyes," Asami, you plan on encircling the entire invasion force, am I right?"

The girl began to giggle ominously," Yes, you are completely right. The moment they reach the central plaza, the trap will snap and it is over for them. The moment we close the pocket, both flanks connect, there will no escape for a single one of them as we will wipe them from the face of the earth."

Thus Asami announced the event that would seal the fate of Suna's military might, she would erase their physical existence. Because if she succeeded there wouldn't any Suna shinobi anymore, or at least not enough that protect Sunagakure from her version of the will of fire.

Asami walked ahead stopping right in front of his desk. Asami spoke softly presenting the man with his final choice because her patience had its limits. Either he accepted now or she would remove him from his position and demand his resignation in the next 24 hours. This was the last offer of her goodwill.

Accentuated by her white skin, Asami's ruby lips smiled," So, do you support my plans now, or do you decide to still oppose them. You have the choice, Shikaku." The choice was his, not really. Because she was just a cute little girl.

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	34. Arc V Chapter II

****V****

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 ** **Author's note:****

Now to round two in the intellectual fight to death between our beloved strategist Shikaku and Asami whose supply depot hadn't yet run out of mental artillery shells. Who will come out on top? And who is in for a vicious beating this time? Anyway, more political manoeuvring for everyone.

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 ** **Arc V Chapter II****

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Shikaku gazed at the girl standing across his desk interiorly recapitulating the events, revising them from very possible perspective. Although the old strategist didn't particularly like to admit it, he had been officially and completely outsmarted this time. Which was something that didn't occur often during his long career as Konoha's still undisputed tactical and strategical advisor.

Honestly, he expected his son to be one who was destined to surpass him in this lifetime and assume his role in the village. But Shikamaru received apparently a serious contender for this position, a girl his son or anybody for that matter shouldn't take lightly.

Should he side with her? Was it a good idea? Was it not? Was it? Was it not? Shikaku was unsure. However, what could happen anyway? The end of world? Surely not. Finally, the man broke the enduring eye contact as he came to his final conclusion after much internal deliberation. And not because her watchful pupils started to discomfort him. He felt an uncanny sensation slowly corroding his mind, a sensation he hadn't felt since a certain clan still walked the face of this earth, but never this pronounced. Could it be?

Shikaku shook his head and ignored these thoughts for now. However, one thing was sure at the moment, he seriously needed a drink, and preferentially a strong one too.

While contemplating about the seasoned bottle of Whisky stored inside his reliable friend the wood box next to something else, Shikaku sighed exasperatedly and mentally exhausted. He was reluctant to estimate the numbers of years he had lost in the past hour alone.

Shikaku surrendered and ceased his opposition by throwing up his hands," Okay, okay, you have won, Asami. We are going with your encirclement. Are you satisfied now?" He sunk back into his padded office chair hoping to have finally gained some peace of mind, which was unknowingly to him nothing more than empty mirage. Unfortunately, the hopeful man didn't know that yet. Furthermore, he narrowly escaped his fate of discovering his own resignation letter and a ceremonial kunai on his desk in the near future. Unless he played along with the wilful girl, what he did.

A proud smile appeared on the girl's face and Asami answered joyfully," See, in the end it wasn't that difficult, right? And yes, I am more or less for the time being. However, shouldn't you know, Shikaku, that I am as a matter of principal never satisfied with anything?"

A victorious girl grinned," Anyway, we will deliver the concrete operational plan next week to you. Is that acceptable, Shikaku? After all, I have only given you a very rough overview in form of a little theoretical war game and nothing else."

And when she said we she meant Fumihiko. If she already had a voluntary assistant, then she should, the slave driver she was, use him properly. Furthermore, he needed some practical experience for what would come in the future. And the main reason wasn't that Asami was naturally lazy, absolutely not.

While sheathing her glimmering white steel which had served well, the girl addressed her helpful attaché," Fumihiko, if you would be so kind to roll out the next map."

Freed by his thoughtful stupor, Fumihiko who had followed her exposition attentively regained his composure. Apparently, she had made a satisfying call by picking up the boy. Good qualified personnel were hard to come by these days. He initially stumbled surprised by being suddenly addressed," Emm, err, emm, which one, Asami-sa**?" Asami didn't understand the last of his mumbled speech, but she didn't care as she had more important matter to focus on than deciphering than confused rambling.

"The world map", Asami replied rehearsing mentally the next stage of her performance which was honestly exceeding her competences a tiny bit. However, Asami had a very, very, very broad definition of the vague term "primary defence of the village" anyway. She was tasked with protecting Konoha, but where did duty start? And primarily where did her heavy duty end? Inside this office room, outside of Konoha's high walls, or far beyond that? Question over question for a pretty head like hers.

Fumihiko was executing her executing her orders faithfully and was carefully unrolling the parchment. Soon appeared on the ground the silvan land of Fire flanked by the deserted Land of Wind on its left, separated only by a thin strip of soil, a no-man's-land bearing the name Land of Rivers. And the aquatic Land of Water on its right. Confined to perpetual insignificance and being the marionettes of foreign influence in the great game, the smaller city states followed next. Kusagakure, Takigakure, Yugakure, Yukigakure and whatever they were called. And not to forget dreary Amegakure.

And last but definitely not least, the remaining two of the five big players, the Land of Lightning and Earth. The stage was set and the curtain was being lifted for her the primary actor.

In the meanwhile, Shikaku senses sharpened by years of political machinations screamed at him that something ominous was about to happen in front of his eyes, something significant that the neither the experienced Jonin despite all his years nor anyone in the Council couldn't have foreseen. He didn't like the direction in which this was going, he didn't like it at all. The sinister glee reflected on Asami's dark retinas supported his theory.

They shimmered in a way that he hadn't seen in any Uchiha before, in a way that evoked in the man a question buried deep within his mindscape. Had he ever met a more dangerous Sharingan user before? Doubtable, Asami was a class on her own. His previously unoccupied synapses sprang to life intrigued by his mysterious stray thought. Strange, why did he suddenly think of her as an Uchiha? She did have indeed the typical Uchiha quality stare. Black eyes, black hair, check. Fire as one of her elemental affinities, check. A high quantity of Yin, check. An unnatural prodigy, check. Could it be? Nah, it was likely only his imagination. The weird ideas of an old man with too much free time, hahahahahahaha, right?

Mostly ignorant of the thought process going on in one of the yet undiscovered regions of his mind, Shikaku wondered," A world map? Why do we need a world map, Asami?"

"Why not?" she countered.

"Emm, isn't the meeting already over? Because I want to go somewhere. And you said yourself you would send me your final…", he gulped and stopped dead in his tracks. His planned trip to the next bar had been forcefully cancelled for now. Her petrifying stare pinned him better down than an entire ANBU battalion and informed him without a single doubt "you, my friend, go nowhere unless I say so, capisc? And if you try something stupid you will feel my wrath".

A powerless Shikaku had to admit that Asami somehow reminded him of his wife, only shorter, and less fearsome, but similar dominant, what a troublesome woman. Hopefully, Shikamaru didn't find out that he, a grown man, had been whipped by a 13-year-old girl, or else his son would probably lose any respect Shikamaru still retained for him. How should he explain that to him?

He stumbled, "Well, err, despite being busy, I think I have nevertheless some extra time for you, Yoshino, emm, I mean, Asami. So what do you want to show me?"

Ignoring his careless slip of tongue, her scary look was replaced by a beaming smile," Excellent, it seems we understand each other. Anyway, let us come to something off topic. And don't worry, I have merely a nice chat with you about something important that might require your attention in the near future, Shikaku."

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The clan chief furrowed his eyebrow understandably. Based on previous extensive, one hour old, experiences with the girl, her diction rarely coincided with her real intentions, which was slightly annoying, like this time," A nice chat? With me?"

"Yes, with you, the unbeaten Jonin Commander, Konoha's strategic genius, the brilliant tactician, the shogi grandmaster, the mastermind b…"

"Stop, stop. Yeah, I get it, I get it", he interrupted her annoying iteration of senseless titles. It was glaringly obvious that there was something wrong, that she wanted something from him, something very specific.

"What do you want, Asami? And why me?" he asked approaching carefully a dangerous precipice from afar.

And his reliable instincts didn't disappoint Shikaku as he noticed the predatory grin appearing on her face. Asami got him exactly where she wanted him," To keep it short, the famed Jonin Commander has what a certain girl in this room doesn't have, yet. A direct access to the village council."

"I ask if you as one of its member would be so kind to inform them in my stead about a set of most worrying circumstances", Asami continued kindly displaying her best human side. She wouldn't let this opportunity for indirect self-promotion pass unused.

Her lips moved swiftly downwards again and she changed back to her serious demeanour. Her formerly smooth voice adopted a more venomous character in her last sentence, accusing, almost despising," Circumstances that have been unwisely ignored all too long and have reached a critical point in my opinion. ****Circumstances**** the higher echelons of this village have apparently failed to recognize in all their wisdom and due to a mildly concerning lack of geostrategic foresight, Shikaku."

"And that would be?" Shikaku replied utterly frustrated his head leaning on his right arm. He officially, capitulated, surrendered, hoisted the white flag, call it what you want. Close to an existential crisis, Shikaku despaired and finally gave up trying to understand the arcane, enigmatic and whatever girl in front. He gave up trying to understand what was going on behind her pale mask and black eyes. He knew from experience that some people were hard nuts to crack and their moves were difficult to read, but Asami was in a completely different league.

He got nothing, really nothing out of this sphinx in human form. Heck, was she even human? He was normally the one who held all the cards during the conversations. Like in a battle he could usually anticipate the actions and thoughts of his opponents by seeing right through them. However, against her that didn't work, not particularly at least. For the second time this day, he, arguably the most intelligent shinobi in this village, was still unable to follow her.

World map? Village council? Unwisely ignored? Critical point? Failed to recognize? Geostrategic foresight? What was Asami getting as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world? Have you an idea, because Konoha's chief strategist had no clue whatsoever, and that wasn't a good sign, none at all.

While Shikaku was somehow attempting to cope with the fact that he was successively intellectually bested by a child who could be his daughter and was almost bashing his head against the wooden desk plate, which he didn't for obvious reasons, Asami addressed the shinobi slightly worried," Emm, is everything okay?"

He recuperated quickly though as he couldn't allow his façade to crumble completely. Shikaku pinched his nose bridge and dismissed her question hastily," Yes, yes, nothing to worry about."

"Anyway, what is so important that I have it to report directly to council, and preferentially soon too, Asami?" he paraphrased her request after deciding to lend her an ear. Because despite his poor performance in the recent hours, Shikaku was by no means a stupid man, quite the contrary actually. And if he had learned something this day, then it was that you shouldn't underestimate a certain black hair and were well advised to listen to her, unless you were ready to pay the according price.

Surprised by his sudden change of attitude, Asami answered," If you say so, Shikaku."

The sitting girl looked down on the map examining the small nations aggregated on the coloured parchment. Asami crossed her legs and started maieutically, a classical move," What do you see, Shikaku?"

What do I see? "Isn't that obvious? A map", Shikaku furrowed his eyebrow.

She chuckled lightly," Shikaku, nothing is ever truly obvious. In most of the cases, it is a matter of your perspective, like this time. We might be looking at the same physical object and yes, you are right, it is a map. However, compared to you, I see things differently through my eyes. My eyes see a grave danger hanging over Konoha where yours don't."

"Shikaku, what do you see one the map?" her enchanting black diamonds adorned her innocent question.

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Evading once again her pupils, he observed the piece of parchment and gave the most logical response in his mental inventory, "The world?"

"Correct. And more precisely?" she attempted to guide him slowly towards the right path, slowly but steadily.

"The five great shinobi nations?" Shikaku asked unsurely.

The game master Asami gave ten points for an observant Shikaku," Yes. And how are these five nations, how should I say, how are they "organized" from a political and diplomatic perspective?"

To underline the gravity of the situation, Asami used her most saccharine smile. Her lips almost seemed happy, but her strained words weren't. Instead a dark sense of lingering danger clouded his mind, "Which are these two "consolidated" blocks that have emerged from the ashes of the second and third shinobi world war? Which hidden village is allied with who? And who are the enemies of these coalitions should hostilities break out again? Don't you see that there might a tiny little problem looming on the horizon, a quite evident one, Shikaku. Especially, if we consider what will happen in circa 20 days at the Chunin exams and its impact on a strategic level. Think about it."

The strategist leaned back on his chair brooding about her speech. What did Asami say again? Blocks, allies, enemies and the Chunin exams. He focused on the cold ground identifying Iwagakure in the left top corner. Afterwards his eyes wandered downwards to Kirigakure, which was Iwa's traditional ally and would be so in the future due to similar interests and them not sharing any direct land border. Despite certain differences, Kumo would likely join the war on their side as the unofficially officially third silent member of the alliance, again. How did the saying go, the enemy of the enemy was my friend. And on the other side of spectrum stood outnumbered and outgunned as usual Konoha together with Suna…

That was the moment, he saw the whole picture which Asami had him guided towards. The various narrative threads finally connected and everything made sense now. How could he have been so blind to the obvious.

Shikaku's hand sunk down and his body slumped together powerlessly as painful realisation struck, as the cold reality collapsed over him. Only his wooden chair stopped his inevitable fall. He sat there motionlessly and waited for the shock to pass by. The taciturn veil of silence gripped the room as Shikaku was simply lost for words. One eternally lasting minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, six minutes.

He eyed the map and four hidden villages grouped around their victim. Konoha had lost its sole ally. Konoha stood now alone. Alone against a traitorous Suna, a hostile Kiri, a revanchist Iwa seeking retribution and an expansionist Kumo. They would stand soon alone against them all in a four front war, isolated and without friends, surrounded by potential enemies on all sides ready to fall upon Konoha's rotting carcass should they show a moment of weakness. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

"We are alone now, right? We against the world", staring on the ceiling Shikaku searched for a bit of consolation by asking the black princess.

Acknowledging his legitimate question Asami merely nodded, a simple nod and nothing else signalled her agreement. Not that she had anything the notion per se, waging war against all four hidden villages simultaneously promised to be a certain challenge, ergo something predestined for her.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem", Fumihiko cleared throat audibly as if he had been about to die soon.

She turned her head before the poor boy died her really on something pneumatic, "Yes."

"Emm, can I ask something?"

"Sure. What is, Fumihiko?" Asami raised a questioning eyebrow.

Subsequently, Fumihiko described Konoha's situation quite well with irrefutable words of brevity, clarity and ancient wisdom, and a little bit concerned, "If I understand you correctly, does that actually mean that we are fucked?"

Asami replied as a laugh entered her face," To answer your question, yes, absolutely. Despite public opinion not knowing yet, we are most definitely fucked and everybody around us, on a grandstrategic scale. And not the pleasant kind. But don't worry, rescue is already on the way." Or to be more precise sitting in the room in form of a certain girl with an unhealthy fetish for the pseudo-colour black.

Now it was Shikaku's turn to be curious, rescue on the way?" And who or better what might our mysterious saviour be that will turn the tide in our favour, Asami?"

"Isn't that evident?" she asked surprised by their state of ignorance. Did she have to use a giant sign with her name written on and "It is obviously me, you idiots!"

Both shinobi shook simultaneously their heads while Shikaku took the lead," No, not at all."

After grumbling indignantly for a few seconds with her arms crossed, Asami sighed in disappointment," Whatever. As mentioned before, don't worry. There are no desperate situations, only desperate people."

The girl raised two fingers and pointed towards a smiling her," And as long as the village still can rely on me,", as its future Hokage clearly," I can assure you that no significant harm shall befall Konoha." More or less, no guarantee and right to a refund given.

Shikaku and Fumihiko stared both alike at the little princess and then looked each other into their eyes, princess, eyes, princess, eyes, princess, eyes, princess, eyes, princess, eyes and so on.

Normally, both ninja would have broken out in an uncontrolled laughter and nearly died of a collapsed lung if a little girl with puppy fat still around her fluffy cheeks had told them in the same boastful manner that she alone would save Konoha from its impending doom like in some sort of heroic fairy tale. Hahahahha, that would have been ridiculous, right?

After exchanging sights however, Shikaku and Fumihiko didn't laugh, neither of their stoic faces did. She meant it seriously. And they took her seriously for good reasons.

An ignorant Fumihiko, because he was convinced since their first encounter that an entire army was needed to bring his princess down, and not a small one. Unless you wanted her of course to step over your mutilated corpses, because Asami could be sometimes a tiny tiny bit ... scary, *shiver.*

Provided, she fought as fiercely as she used her words. He might have never seen her fight, heck he didn't even know nothing about her besides her name and she was formerly part of the ANBU, but he regarded her as opponent of the most dangerous calibre, his instincts told him.

And Shikaku, mainly because he was aware of her impressive credentials, and the estimated body count she was actually responsible for. The staggering number of a prepubescent girl not older than his son and just two years out of the academy which easily put most veteran Jonin to shame.

Granted, the majority could be in her words attributed to "unfortunate collateral damage directed against soft targets", but an estimated total of roughly 1,000 was nevertheless remarkably high considering that their domestic grim reaper had only served a single year in the ANBU. It was by no means some kind of urban legend that entire Iwa, Kumo or Kiri companies simply tended to vanish and never report back again should they ever be blessed with accidentally meeting her. And yes, quite a few had this particular pleasure.

Meanwhile her assistant was fighting the shivering idea of having to face her ever on the open field, scary, Shikaku maintained his outward calmness. She had already got him two times but she wouldn't a third," You say, I repeat verbatim, as long as the village relies on you no significant harm shall befall Konoha. And I personally don't doubt your strength." Assumingly somewhere around Kage-level or slightly below.

He hesitated for a few seconds considering what he would say next," However, with all due respect to your qualities as a Kunoichi, I don't see you accomplishing such, singlehandedly, Asami."

Her official response consisted of a subdued chuckle masked by one of her hands," It may surprise you, Shikaku, but I have come to a similar conclusion. Albeit my words were more intended as figure of speech, alone, I might have indeed a rather difficult time. Fortunately, I am not alone though as I can trust in competent shinobi like you, Fumihiko and the rest of Konoha who will be crucial to my, or our endeavours, right?"

Shikaku listened carefully noticing a small detail in her deliberate formulation and its implications. Difficult didn't equal impossible. And impossible translated to within the realm of the possible," Crucial? In which sense?"

The girl with the all the hidden aces up her black sleeves answered smiling in anticipation," Crucial to solving our problematic strategic situation. We have merely to strike first, and primarily hard in order to gain time. We have to completely knock out one of our enemies in a quick pre-emptive campaign, or incapacitate them to such a degree that they won't pose any significant threat to us, within a reasonable time frame at least. The only question is who shall be our candidate?"

The black princess decreed," Fumihiko, if you would be so kind."

Her unofficial secretary nodded and complied with his orders. He stepped forwards and passed Shikaku a set of three different coloured files, neither exceedingly thick nor particularly heavy. In an orderly fashion, Fumihiko deposited these three folders on Shikaku's desk and returned afterwards to Asami's side.

Shikaku contemplated about the pages placed directly under his eyes. Next to each they laid peacefully, patiently, without any intrinsic sense of hurry. A red folder, a white one, a blue one and each one awaited his decision, his judgement. The serene black letters written on the front bored deeply into his mind until he finally evaded their sight.

Shikaku didn't look into them as it didn't need a genius to figure out what they were about. Recalling Asami's awkward sense of naming and her prior expositions, their content wasn't difficult to imagine. Three colours, three options, three targets, three villages. Did she really comprehend what the execution of a single one of these could cause? Probably, after all it was Asami he was talking her about, always an annoying step ahead you. And that was what frightened him the most about her, she actually understood precisely what she was doing, but she proceeded nevertheless.

Outplayed and outmanoeuvred, Shikaku's sigh filled the room," You have planned this from the beginning, haven't you?"

Confused, Asami tilted her head and played the dumb little girl. The princess answered nonchalantly and guilty of being found out," Oh my, really? Have I?" For Shikaku, however, her words carried a completely different meaning," You are quite late to notice that, my friend."

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	35. Arc V Chapter III

****V****

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 ** **Arc V Chapter III****

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" Oh my, really? Have I?", Asami expressed the innocent wonderment of a 13 years old child. Lesser men would have fallen for her act of the oblivious damsel in distress, but he didn't, especially due to her noticeable sarcastic undertone. Furthermore, the unexpressed question hung in the air," So what has given me away, please tell me, Shikaku?"

Shikaku leaned back in his chair, something he did way too often for his liking this day, or in the recent hours to be exact. Before returning to the ongoing conversation, he looked though the open window for a few brief seconds. Such a lovely day, the shining sun, the cloudless sky and the chirping bird, and he was stuck here, what a drag. He had work to do, probably.

"Yes, you have", Shikaku didn't narrow his eyes, no matter he wanted. He had given up on cheap intimidation tactics ages ago. Needless to say, these had proven quite ineffective against her against his current opponent," I don't think you have written all these like the typical academy homework last night shortly before going to sleep, or I strongly doubt it at least, right?"

One, two or three? White, blue or red? Which one he should take? Nah, the colour shouldn't matter all too much in this case. To underline his statement, he took one of the folders for demonstrative purposes and flipped through it. While the white pages and quickly passed his mental eye, he noticed to not a small degree of unpleasant surprise that the document already included a user friendly handout. A complete order of battle. The according deployment plans, troop movements, timetables and the necessary mobilisation orders.

This was way more concrete and serious than he thought, this had to be handled cautiously. The little princess was mentally ready, she was geared for war and everything required was the authorisation of the village council, one single decision of the Hokage and she would have her way. Fortunately, she wasn't the Hokage, otherwise the girl would have already plunged them all into the Fourth Shinobi World War, Asami's Shinobi World War, a war Konoha started. And luckily, Shikaku was here to mediate, and primarily shackle her bellicose tendencies.

While the notion of an unleashed Asami and what would she do should she ever come into the right position…, no scrap the latter, she was already in the right position and he experienced the tangible results right in front of him, sent a shiver down his spine, he continued sein the whole picture," And furthermore it does retrospectively explain your personal infatuation with completely destroying the Suna invasion force. I think I understand now why you are preferring to encircle them instead of more conventional methods." Many things made sense now.

The reason for his mental headaches countered smilingly," Although I would consider the term infatuation a bit of an exaggeration, I am not sure what would explain what? Please, enlighten me, darling. Which worthwhile insights does Konoha's master strategist have to offer?"

Shikaku flipped again through the pages to reaffirm the nagging suspicion he had, something that ultimately confirmed his prior assumption. Their proximity coincided well, too well for them being independent from each other, too well for being a coincidence. Moreover, it was always better to overestimate than to underestimate your opponent based on his experience, especially if it was her.

He searched for a certain paragraph somewhere at the beginning as far as he remembered. They have to be here, somewhere around here, no, next page, no, maybe here, no, perhaps somewhere further in the back, no … Ah found. Four months, he didn't read wrong. It was indeed four months after the Chunin exam, a mere 120 days and hell could break loose.

Shikaku stopped his search and returned to the present discussion," Let us say, the various dates for your little expeditions, how did you define them again, wasn't it an "overstrength reconnaissance in force", are in fact very close in time."

Optimistic? She would rather call them realistic based on their apparent situation. They had to act, quickly and with determination. Lost space could be recuperated, but not lost time. A grumbling Asami crossed her arms defensively and asked despite knowing the answer," And why should that matter?"

Shikaku read once again the black letters fatefully aligned like the stars on sky, "Considering your very ambitious time frame, Asami, you don't intend to either execute Case Red, White or Blue without eliminating Suna first. As far as I see, both operations build on each other, don't they?"

Her eyebrow shot upwards indicating some sort of amusement, as if he had hit a hidden gold vein. The princess smiled happily and her interested voice invited him to continue," I am listening."

Surprised by her sudden interest, Shikaku paraphrased his suspicions," No matter what, you want to finish off Suna in a relatively short war, in a quick campaign before taking actions against the other hidden villages like planned. Suna is merely the first step, your real targets were always Kiri, Iwa or Kumo, am I not right?"

For a few moments followed nothing, no sound, no answer, nothing but undisputed silence. Until a certain girl decided to break the ice by suddenly starting to clap in a subdued manner. The moderate applause produced by her albino hand hitting her other palm filled the room and startled everyone present," Fumihiko, could please assist me. I think our Jonin Commander has earned a little applause for his admirable deduction."

Fumihiko hesitated initially. Nevertheless, her newly recruited claqueur followed her suggestion and joined her rhythm," Emm, yes, Captain."

And there they were, Asami and Fumihiko, two people together, both clapping simultaneously. And the worst they didn't stop. Although he currently enjoyed the fruits of his recent success which felt good, take this Asami muahahaha, he had to admit that the scene in front of his eyes had kind of surreal touch as he was lost for words. The outwardly serious and professional Shikaku tried his best to resolve involuntarily comic situation," Err, you can stop n…"

Asami beat him, however, and her rewarding applause grew weaker," What should I say, Shikaku? Your observations spot on, Shikaku. My primary concern was at no point of time the invasion we are currently facing, which won't amount to more than an insignificant side note in someone else's history book. Sunagakure is at most an unimportant obstacle waiting to be brushed aside in Konoha's inevitable march to hegemony. They are militarily far too weak to be considered a threat worthy of our humble attention. An enemy you dispose of like an annoying insect when you have some time to spare instead of wasting precious time and effort on them, resources that are needed elsewhere."

"I personally don't see the point why we our brave fellow leaf shinobi should lay down their lives under the unforgiving sun in a costly fight for worthless sand dunes and endless masses of scorpions. As long as I don't run out of material for building my beloved sandcastles, Konoha has little interest in committing troops to occupy a barren desert, haven't we?" Asami giggled secretively while her assistant's mind was focused on imagining Asami excitedly constructing a sandcastle with a small bucket and a foldable spade. Fumihiko mentally shook his head, strange, where did he get that from?

Ignorant of the Fumihiko's frivolous thoughts, Asami continued her more serious monologue," A decisive victory during the Chunin exams ravens should be sufficient to break the neck of their delusional aspirations once for all times. I think that a few thousand corpses of their best shinobi gifted to the hungry ravens will easily dissuade them from any future foreign adventures and ultimately force them to beg us for peace, albeit unconditional surrender would be my preference. In the end, it doesn't matter though."

And you have guessed correctly. After securing our open western flank by hopefully reducing Suna to a shadow of its former self, my real goal is indeed to dismantle the alliance standing in our way. And to achieve such, we will have to crush, in the sense of utter destruction, as described either Iwa, possible but not recommendable."

Understandable, Iwa-nin were an unpleasant enemy to fight and he spoke from scar based experience.

"Kiri, the weakest link in the chain and certainly the target most susceptible to an adequately robust knock-out blow."

He furrowed his eyebrow and wondered where the girl always got her euphemisms from? Did she carry some kind of dictionary with her all the time?

"Or my personal suggestion Kumo", Asami smiled proudly at her final declaration.

Kumo? Did he hear right or had Asami been finally befallen by incurable megalomania, aka had the girl gone completely bonkers? Did she seriously suggest to challenging the biggest standing force in the world? As if singlehandedly risking to provoke the Fourth Shinobi World War by actively adding canisters worth of gasoline to the fire hadn't been enough for her. Clearly Shikaku didn't say such things openly and thanks to years of professionalism his schooled face didn't betray any of these sentiments. Instead he acted mildly surprised," Huh, Kumo?"

"I know you might have some objections", Asami conceded.

"Some objections? No, no, no, none whatsoever", he assured the hawk, what he didn't account for was Asami outright ignoring him and his thick sarcastic undertone.

"Ah, that is good. And I feared you would have some issues", the girl scratched her head in a relieved manner and in company of an apologetic smile. Shikaku could only furrow his eyebrows. She did that deliberately, right? There was no other explanation.

"Nevertheless, I would recommend Kumo as the targets of our principal effort", Asami showed once again her solemn side.

"Not to say that I am curious, but I am curious. Asami, why Kumo?" Shikaku laughed uneasily.

"Primarily because I still have a score to settle with these amateur electricians and I will show them the true meaning of the word pain and how a real lighting is supposed to feel. I want to see Kumo set ablaze, slowly devoured by a tormenting inferno of flames consuming man and building alike and without difference. I want to see them all burn while reciting my polished verses on a fiddle to celebrate their eternal demise clothed in fire. In short, nothing personal.", Asami would have said if she had been an honest person.

But the girl wasn't. Instead she masked personal interests behind the concealing veil of rational arguments and reasoning," Why? Kumo is the strongest land power in existence. And if we should succeed in breaking them completely in a blitzkrieg campaign, any other attempt to resists Konoha's military might will be doomed to fail."

"Without Kumogakure providing the bulk of their force, any alliance formed against Konoha's interests will be a mere hindrance to our goals and nothing else. Destroy Kumo, Shikaku, and the Iwa- Kumo- Kiri Axis will fall like in a game of dominoes", the princess whispered into his ears urging him to take action with her honeyed voice.

Exhausted but not defeated, Shikaku didn't surrender yet. Instead he contemplated about what she said. For a last time, he reviewed the documents given to him. Not for confirmatory reason though, but simply to feel the weight of the white paper before he would present them to the council as requested. He might not like the overall direction in which Asami was trying to lead the village, but a few of her ideas were certainly worthy of being discussed thoroughly.

Shikaku put the folders aside, they could wait, "Do you comprehend, Asami, what you are doing?"

"What do you mean?" as predicted she reacted with her own question.

Therefore, Shikaku rephrased his question. Not in a reprimanding tone, but a tone of genuine curiosity and slight pity," Asami, aren't you aware that you are playing with the fire? That your actions could spark a Fourth Shinobi World War?"

As expected, his stoic counterpart was unmoved by his words, unable to reach Asami uncaring core even in the slightest. The girl chuckled softly," Aside from the fact that fire was always my element and you shouldn't worry therefore too much, I think that your question is quite superfluous as everyone within this room knows the answer, especially someone with your famed intellect, Shikaku"

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The rhythmic sound of his trusted walking cane hitting the hard ground accompanied the frail old, but certainly not innocent old man. A man in the service of Konoha, responsible for more than known by the ignorant majority and slightly less than assumed by the knowing few. That was him, Danzo.

Leaving the red bricks of the Hokage tower behind and a council of blind idiots, the aged shinobi wandered along the empty streets darkened by the night, his mind though was focused on something else instead of the dark path he was walking down. Today's meeting only reinforced his impression sealing his final decision. The cursed blood flowing through her veins didn't lie, Asami exhibited the exact same traits as the rest of the damned breed.

Selfish, egocentric, ambitious and completely insane like all the ancestors before her, in possession of inhuman powers that shouldn't be hers, no, shouldn't be theirs alone, the embodiment of everything he hated so deeply about the Uchiha. The bitter man ground his teeth to suppress his anger and the lingering phantom pain in his right arm. He would rather die than seeing an Uchiha rise under his watchful eyes.

The second Hokage was right, every single one of them was a threat to the village, an Uchiha couldn't be trusted. As long as a single one of them still wandered over the surface of the earth, the village wasn't safe from their tyranny. He had to act, not in a week, not tomorrow, but now, the girl had to die. And if he had to personally rip the Sharingan out of her eye sockets.

Blinded by his paranoia Danzo marched on, his steps sure and convinced by the rightfulness of his actions like so many times before. The question was, however, how? After all, he didn't intend of being blown to smithereens of roasted flesh raining from the sky. Asami suffered neither from Shisui's timidity nor Itachi's youthful naivety. The only weakness he could capitalize on was her boundless pride. Nevertheless, this wouldn't be easy. Danzo knew Asami, he knew what she could and would do. He stopped and looked up to the stars expecting to be granted some kind of helpful advice, which didn't happen though. The stars remained silent and thus he resumed his tacit walk. This wouldn't be easy, he had to get crafty this time. Like back then with the Akat…

A smile appeared on Danzo's face and his steps were suddenly lighter than before.

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In a secret hideout located in a far, far, far away land, not far enough to be unreachable though due to poor infrastructure, which was a feature that plagued the majority of the more rural areas as the Daimyo had little interest in spending money on public works, provided the term public works could have been found in their limited vocabulary, sat a certain ninja who had some work to do. Despite his old age and years of constant combat, the man hadn't turned into dust yet, instead his hearts enjoyed their extraordinary longevity.

A lonely desk lamp and its overworked light bulb were desperately trying to illuminate the dimly lit room, a task in which the pair failed spectacularly. But it didn't bother the organization's domestic treasurer too much as his mask was leaning over a pile of annoying letters. And thanks to a certain orange haired leader with a few of his metal sticks stuck too deeply into his rectum, it was his duty to either accept or decline the incoming mission requests and the rest of their correspondence. Why the fuck did they even have an official mail address? Couldn't they simply be a clandestine organization.

De facto turned into a secretary, the Takigakure-nin executed his job nevertheless faithfully and most of the times without so much of a complaint, especially if he was still within the audible range of their glorious leader who could be a real pain in the arse when being moody as usual.

Where did he store his paper knife again? No. No. No, negative, not here. The man opened the different drawers in search of the missing knife with little success so far.

Whatever, then he had to improvise. Using his moving tendril to slit open each envelope, the diligent shinobi systematically worked through the endless seeming paper jungle. Letter for letter, paragraph for paragraph, page for page. At least, he could deal with the majority of the correspondence quite effectively by pushing them over the desk's edge and allowing them thanks to the forces of gravity to directly wander into the paper basket. Whereas, the more useful kind was put on the maybe pile on his right side.

"No. No. In a few years maybe. No. No. Certainly not, we aren't the most expensive mercenaries on the market but we aren't that cheap. No. No. No, the senile miser of a Tsuchikage should better pay up his old debts before recruiting us again. No. No. Are they kidding, we are not working pro bono here. Seriously, we are not a charity. No. No. Maybe pile. No. No. Oh interesting, a request from Takigakure. They can go fuck themselves. No. No. Searching for a missing child, no. We are no detectives. No. No."

What bothered him though was the fact that he had to challenge the weekly paper flood alone, no help, nothing. Yes, he did get why Pain didn't assign Deidara, his solution would be to blow everything up. Zetsu, he was a fucking plant and generally not very useful for manual tasks. Why was he a member at all, he couldn't even make a good coffee. Sasori? Nah, let him play with his dolls. Hidan, his body may be immortal but surely not his brain cells. His replies would be likely written with his own blood and include the best swear words his jelly brain had to offer.

Kakuzu sighed heavily while continuing his monotone sorting duty on the invisible front line against the paper tsunami. "No. No. Request to join us, no. No. No. Maybe. No. No. No. Interesting, but underpaid. No. No. Maybe. No. No. Shit no, Kirigakure demanding a full refund for "professional misconduct". Cheeky bastards, shouldn't they already know that we have a firm no refund policy. No. No."

"No. No. Further fan mail for Itachi. Someone else wants an autograph from him. No. No. No. No. No. Oh, it seems a further tranche for our angel has arrived. No idea, what she needs a few million explosive tags for, surely not for her Origami. No. No. No. Maybe. No. No. What, a letter from the Amegakure Revenue Agency? Strange, I didn't know we have to pay taxes. Well, apparently we have to. Although, Pain should sort that out anyway."

Apropos angel, couldn't Kami send him his blue girlfriend as a support, wasn't paper her favourite element? You know, letters, paper, Konan, right? Kakuzu carried on while dreaming for some kind of help in the ever distant future, which most likely wouldn't happen though as he was currently the only one within the Akatsuki who had a basic grasp on accountancy, an idea what active and passive, credit and debit were. Seriously, without him and thanks to, no names at this point, a certain woman buying literally billions of paper bombs, everything would have broken down long ago.

Perhaps, he should have really become a banker, you know investment baking, swaps, options, futures, forex, all this kind of stuff, instead of an internationally searched criminal, albeit there wasn't much of a difference substantially. But less trouble and more money.

Thinking about an alternative timeline of Kakuzu the bankster, no gangster, dammit, banker, he gripped the next envelope to be examined. The missing nin furrowed his both eyebrows, it was one from Konoha, and with an unknown sender too, a certain Tashiro Katsumoto. Konoha itself was already strange enough, he always thought they pretending to be goodies and he couldn't remember the last time they received a mission request by Konoha. He carefully opened the envelope as if expecting some kind of jackpot, and what greeted him was a single photo. A girl, black hair, black eyes that seemingly tried to threaten him form beyond the camera lenses, how was that possible? And garments that could easily bankrupt any mortal man. Did they have to kidnap the daughter of some Daimyo?

Fortunately, it wasn't one of these troublesome missions but a simple assassination. Below her picture, were written her name, her rank, so she was a Kunoichi, a Genin to be precise, and the promised bounty was …

The famous bounty hunter blinked for a few times not sure if he didn't inhale any of Sasori's poisonous hallucinogens, as far as he knew the puppeteer shouldn't be around here, before he decided to rub his eyes instead. Nope, nothing changed, the number of digits was still the same and that made him suspicious, extremely suspicious. His trusted senses warned him that there was something off here, very off. The bounty and the target didn't match, such a sum for a Genin, that was insane. The shinobi shook his head in disbelieve, 60,000,000.00 ryo for a single girl. Heck, he would sell his grandmother, mother and his future unborns for this amount. Someone really wanted her to disappear, and quickly too judging by the given deadline.

Kakuzu learned a few tricks over his numerous years in this business, and one was that customers rarely, and he meant rarely, overpaid for reasons of kind-hearted generosity. Yes, sometimes they did within a reasonable degree when they weren't occupied with screwing you over otherwise. However, most of the times the clientele was mean as fuck despite being literal moneybags. Throwing money out of the window for every piece of shit, but when it came to killing someone these frugal people suddenly became very, very parsimonious in regard to their spending habits.

Which meant in conclusion, if you received such a tempting offer there was always a catch. What did the fuckers say again about Hashirama? Don't worry, the Senju will be an easy mission. Regard the money as some sort of free bonus for your past services, Kakuzu. Easy my ass, he got trashed instead.

Nevertheless, the question was now. Should he decline or accept. Decline or accept. Selfish greed against common sense. Profit vs safety. 60,000,000.00 or nothing. A difficult decision.

Kakuzu did what he did always when facing such a dilemma. He trusted in the only thing dependable on this miserable world, the reliable advisor that never had abandoned him, money. Therefore, he flipped a coin. Head for killing her, tails for killing her, his coin had the choice.

He tossed the piece of metal into the air and waited until it fell down to earth again to announce him his desired result, the outcome was sure. And so it happened.

"It seems our target has more luck than I thought," the fortunate shinobi commented amused as he picked up the flipped coin, its reeded edge stuck firmly between two ancient floorboards. This was unexpected.

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	36. Arc V Chapter IV

**V**

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 **Arc V Chapter IV**

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As the first rays of sunlight flooded her bedroom, Asami was brutally ripped out of her peaceful slumber. The rays of reality had killed her dreams mercilessly, and Asami despised them for their cruel act of nature. The bright sun smiled upon the girl but Asami didn't accept the sun's hollow offer of peace for the horrible crime the light was doing to her, every day anew. The crime of shattering her joyful illusions There could be no peace between her and the sun, no reconciliation between her and the vast infinite world that was her enemy.

And there was no greater ire at that moment than that of a specific girl deprived of these immeasurable seconds of happiness. Oh, how she hated the shining sun for practically nothing than what the star had already done millions of years before her and will do millions of years after her mortal shell had long since crumbled to dust. For practically nothing but stealing her a few fleeting moments that would have gone by in a blink of an eye. Moments that were practically irrelevant in the face of an uncaring world, but for Asami's heart they were everything, everything she couldn't have and that was fundamentally wrong with the universe.

Why couldn't she simply turn the sun off, turn off like a giant light bulb. Yes, like a light bulb. Nature didn't do her that favour, however, and therefore it wasn't possible. Furthermore, the window shades were too far away and she was too lazy for standing up and pulling them down.

As a consequence, a yawning and very haptic Asami took her warm bed sheet hostage by wrapping her cashmere protectively around her body and turned away. "Stupid sun", murmured the almost dormant girl. But that wasn't the end of the story.

Following her ancient preposition, Asami couldn't stay still. No, she rolled herself in her fluffy canopy bed instead. She obviously had a fluffy one, because why shouldn't she have one? Good sleep was after all the fundament of every mind at work, in her opinion. Lying soft but not too soft, the girl subconsciously shifted from one side to the other in a never ending repetitive cycle. Not knowing why, her semi-conscious body moved to her left side, then to her right side again, left, right, left, right, left, left, right, right, right, right, and sharp left to avoid falling off the bed. Which had happened more than one time and wasn't exactly a pleasant, albeit reliable, method of waking up in the morning. Her head imitated these motions and followed her body while a certain girl hugged her beloved fluffy pillow. She was sleepy, tired, sleepy, tired, but primarily sleepy.

Asami yawned and enjoyed the rest of her morning time in a state of eternal harmony in peace. Nevertheless, at some point of time inevitable tragedy had to strike and she would be sadly forced to stand up. But this moment was luckily still far far away and not her problem. It was the problem of a future Asami.

The girl shifted satisfied to her right side and ignored a nagging thought she had. Asami had the feeling that she was forgetting something very important, something relevant that was skilfully eluding her sleepy mind. So often, she almost had it within her grasp but then this thought still escaped her.

However, it couldn't be that important, otherwise she wouldn't have forgotten it. Yes, that sounded logical. No, it didn't but a still tired Asami didn't care. "Muaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh", the girl yawned softly and accompanied by her silken pillow she turned left. Yes, in her pillow she trusted.

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There were also normal days in the life of a certain village elder named Shimura Danzo who was occupied with reading a field report he received from a certain Root operative, so nothing out of the ordinary. Interesting, it seemed that Iwa and Kumo were planning to stage a joint exercise right across Konoha's borders, and a major one too. Which shouldn't be much of a concern though as they shouldn't have any knowledge yet about Konoha's future intentions, or Asami's to be exact. It was likelier to be mere coincidence.

A man who barricaded himself as usual in his fortified Root headquarter in the vein hope it could protect him from the public eye, which it surprisingly did. Few knew about the place's mere existence, and even fewer knew what was going on, was talked about, what was decided behind these grey walls. The thick concrete walls had seen much over the years, perhaps too much and that struck fear into the hearts of people that had seen this place from the inside.

They were taciturn testimonies of had happened here hidden deep beneath cold stone seemingly trying to burry you alive. Of people that entered but never left. Of dark cells and iron shackles without use. Of long corridors enlightened by a pale artificial light. Of closed steel doors that didn't let escape the most minuscule human sound and uncooperative to your desperate pleas. They were the witness of his actions, his greatest failures but also his undeniable successes.

Normal days filled by his unfulfilled dream of becoming Hokage instead of Hiruzen and his hated empty idealism. Corrupting thoughts that slowly infested Konoha's shinobi like a cancerous tumour until they couldn't be removed anymore. Entire generations of ninja, of naïve and obedient children that had grown soft under Hiruzen's reign.

A hesitating Hokage never ready, never willing, never determined to do what was necessary. Hiruzen made Konoha weak and one day they would pay the price for his delusions. Therefore, not a single passed he didn't plot the demise of his enemy, which was, however, easier said than done. So far all of his attempts at conquering the Hokage tower didn't succeed too well. No matter what, everything failed, even his assassination. The old man might not know how lead a village but surely how to stay in power by clinging onto his chair.

Normal days dominated by what he was best at or what he at least thought he best at, acting behind the scenes, pulling the strings from the unseen shadows, playing Konoha's master puppeteer. After all, Danzo didn't earn his title "Darkness of the Shinobi" for nothing. Instead the aged shinobi wore his infamous moniker even with a certain degree of pride. Because title was title and accomplishments were accomplishments, and there was no such thing as bad publicity. Well, there was, but bad publicity was one of Danzo's smaller worries considering that his reputation couldn't be tarnished more.

Moreover, the word darkness caught the essence of his known as well as lesser known operations. Actions thanks to which Konoha made an enemy of more people than the common ignorant villager and Shinobi included could imagine. But that and all the blood stuck to his hands was a price Danzo was willing to pay, no sacrifice was too big for the safety of Konoha.

Fortunately, due to his continuous efforts and Roots diligent modus operandi, the most of these hostilities were short lived, physically not mentally. Unfortunately, and as shocking as it might seem, these who survived tended to be quite persistent in their opposition towards Konoha, for inexplicable reasons. Eventually, however, all of Konoha's enemies would fall. It was merely a question of time like everything else in his life. Whether the village's enemies or being Hokage, he had only to be patient and bide his time.

Today wasn't a normal day though. And the rest of the recent week wasn't normal too. While scanning through report, Danzo did neither dream about ousting the incompetent Hiruzen nor worry about the enemies from without. No, his problem was a domestic one. One that got worse the more information he gathered about her.

One that once again confirmed an old personal wisdom of his "the Uchiha might be the biggest assholes in the known universe but always keep in mind that they are absurdly powerful assholes", particularly in Asami's case. Even Danzo wasn't stupid enough to battle the little nutter on a fair and equal battlefield without preparation, which was far too risky in his opinion. One of them wouldn't come out alive. And the chances weren't low that he was said one, provided he played fair like said before, what he clearly didn't do.

Perhaps, this time he bit more than he could chew. While continuing his read Danzo's face slightly distorted at this unacceptable thought. He didn't see the entire clan die only to bested by a single girl.

Konoha's unofficial master of subterfuge and scamming hoped that the ignorant Akatsuki would accept his dishonest offer, a ludicrous amount of 60,000,000 ryo for a simple Genin should be enough to buy their agreement, shouldn't it? Danzo smiled visibly, money he didn't have the intention to ever pay, but that the idiots couldn't know.

Either the dispatched duo would indeed succeed in, unlikely as it was, eliminating her. Or he could use his pawns as expendable cannon fodder to soften up Asami's resistance and then step in to mop up. You see, two birds with one stone, a win-win situation, for him, only for him.

"Danzo-sama", he heard the voice of one of his more trusted underlings.

Danzo turned his head to the kneeling Yamanaka," What is Fu?"

"We have received a response from the Akatsuki, Danzo-sama", the Root shinobi presented a scroll to his master.

Already? The guys are pretty fast, maybe he should hire them more often in the future. After all, he had plenty of work to do. Danzo took the scroll from Fu's hands and opened it.

" Dear Mr. Tashiro,", oh, so his involuntary subcontractor worked, surprisingly," Unfortunately, we, the Akatsui, have to inform you that your mission request has been…"

An annoyed Danzo crumbed the paper and threw it against the nearby wall," Rejected."

The village elder was contemplating, he was thinking. This made things complicated, he had to improvise now as long as he didn't suddenly get some S-rank ninja from somewhere else who wanted to play his sacrificial pawn, in his game which was rather unlikely. Hiruzen? Hahahaha, no. Jiraiya maybe? No, the man was an idiot but not that stupid. Kakashi? Forget it.

After running out of viable options, an exteriorly neutral Danzo addressed his waiting subordinate," Send for Torune and "Sai", I have to discuss something important with you three." The three had the privilege to work with her extensively during her ANBU time and their experiences should be helpful therefore. Studying soulless dossiers was one thing, hearing it from the ones who had seen her in action was another.

"Understood, Danzo-sama", Fu disappeared.

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Fumihiko felt the stinging pain of betrayal, the pain of Asami's betrayal. Like a dagger, rammed through his ribs straight into his chest as if she had wanted strike for his heart. Fortunately, it wasn't her sword or it would have been really over for him, a nice tombstone included.

Asami had betrayed, abandoned, sacrificed, call it what you want, him, without the slightest sign of remorse, compassion and pity. Heartless b… Fumihiko scanned the room mentally if said person was anywhere in his vicinity. Even when he was merely thinking it, you could never be sure enough, especially with her. And the moment he didn't spot any of her well-known black trademarks, he continued. …itch.

Yes, the ice princess, a wonder that she had no affinity for ice as her element, had thrown him cruelly under the horse cart, for little personal gains no less. She had left him alone with all the hard work, planning, etc. And the only things the girl had given him were the sweet smile of evil. Her hand waving "bye-bye, darling" while sending him off to the front line. And her very encouraging words "if you have any problems, then keep in mind that I am always with you. Clearly, not physically as we will be a few miles apart but spiritually. So cheer up." Fumihiko was wondering why she didn't throw some kind of confetti into the air to celebrate this joyful event.

Understandably, Fumihiko didn't cheer up at all and blinked instead disbelievingly. The girl could hide herself underneath her umbrella of wordiness as much as she wanted, he knew exactly what Asami meant when used the phrases "outsourcing to third-parties", "redeployment of available manpower" and "organisational restructuring and rationalisation of working processes".

Unfortunately, his knowledge was quite useless and didn't protect him from his inescapable fate. He knew and saw it coming but he couldn't do anything, the tragedy of life. Well, he tried to protest about it which didn't work out too well though. Asami suppressed his feeble attempt at rebellion with a soft giggle and her reply that this was obviously a non-union job and he was firmly within her iron grip, aka resistance is futile. Fumihiko sighed mentally, and that was the short version of how he had gotten into the current, very uncomfortable situation.

A lonely Fumihiko stared into the impatient eyes of his counterparts. A man and a woman accompanied by her frightening canine guardian. Two Jonin who were waiting since a while for a specific girl who hadn't arrived yet despite being the very one responsible for calling in this council of war. In conclusion, where the fuck was Asami? Seriously, where was she? Because he needed her here as soon as possible, preferentially now.

"So, does anyone here have any questions regarding our future battle plans?", while unknowingly to everyone Fumihiko was experiencing a mental meltdown, he asked smilingly around. He tried to play for time. What he did successfully so far in the hope that reinforcements would eventually arrive. After all, Asami couldn't have forgotten this completely, could she? She would still arrive, right?

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Located in the HQ and behind the scenes, Root's dismayed leader was bogged down in a rather unproductive and time consuming debate with three Root shinobi who had unfortunately neither a concept of the term unproductive nor time consuming due to their intensive indoctrination. While Danzo had the feeling that they were going around in circles since the beginning, his ever loyal yes-men hadn't lost hope yet.

The old shinobi was tempted to pinch his nose in desperation, but he didn't as that wasn't enough Danzo-like," And what is with poisoning her?" He asked neutrally hoping for a lucky shot. He waited for a reply waited, and waited, and waited.

The three looked each other into their eyes before the taciturn finally Torune took the word," That is unlikely to succeed based on our assessments."

"Assessments?" Danzo demanded confused. Had he already tried to poison her? No, no, he was old, but not that old, he would remember that.

The domestic expert for toxins answered calmly," Acting on your orders to explore possible ways "to make her retire", I put a non-lethal but still considerable dose on a mission into her morning coffee to test her resistance."

"And?"

"The results were mixed. As far as I can say, the poison had no visible effect on her besides a bitter aftertaste and a slight shiver. Therefore, we can safely assume that she possesses like the majority of high ranking shinobi a certain degree of immunity thanks to her high Chakra level, or at least some sort of natural resistance. Furthermore, she said, I quote her," While I might enjoy a bitter flavour of almond in the morning, the next time you try this on me we have a problem, amigos. Understood?" the Aburame stated emotionlessly like you might expect it from an exemplary Root shinobi.

"And a sneak attack?", Danzo clicked his tongue and started his next try.

This time it was Fu's turn," Possible but improbable."

"When activated, the Mangekyo grants her as expected extraordinary reflexes and perception which makes any attempt at sneaking up or ambushing her in general exceedingly difficult. This means we have to strike at an unexpected moment if we want to have any chance of success. However, such moments are rare, except for when she is in combat."

In combat? Wasn't that contradiction? "Continue", Danzo said with new interest and a certain idea forming in his head.

The Yamanaka explained from his kneeling position," From what I have observed during our assignments with her, Asami suffers from an immense superiority complex, regarding herself implicitly superior to the enemy and for that matter everyone else. In 99% of cases she therefore tends to be easily distracted and bored when fighting an in her view "inferior" enemy not worthy her attention. As long as she doesn't consider you a real threat, she will go her version of "easy" on you and start to act playfully in a certain sense. And that is our opportunity. Nevertheless, Asami is still extremely dangerous even in that state. And her very volatile evaluation can quickly change too, from "negligible threat, ignore them" to "it is a good day to die … not for me though"."

This was interesting, truly interesting. The village elder asked for confirmation leaning," So, let us assume we engage her with our full force in the heat of battle when our Uchiha should be occupied with fighting off some foreign invaders. How should we proceed then, in this hypothetical scenario? Sai, what is your opinion?" Danzo looked towards his disciple whose opinion he valued.

But the boy remained silent deliberating his choice of words. While kneeling on the hard floor, he eventually replied," As Fu has demonstrated previously, Asami is an undoubtedly gifted Kunoichi, not to say an incredible difficult enemy. An enemy that is arguably beyond the capabilities of anyone in this room."

"An enemy well versed in Ninjutsu, especially Katon and Raiton, and presumably in Genjutsu. Despite some deficiencies in the technical and aesthetic department, an adequately skilled Kenjutsu and Taijutsu user if necessary."

"A Kunoichi who is according to our experiences in possession of seemingly bottomless Chakra reserves and the necessary staying power to use them to their fullest. Evidently, a practised teleporter and all-seing sensor type. And to make things worse, our target is a Mangekyo wielder with an unknown special ability capable of manifesting her Susanoo."

"In conclusion, Asami is a powerful all-rounder without any glaring weakness. An opponent we can solely defeat with superior firepower or by the means of sheer attrition. Therefore, I assume that any victory over her will be most likely a costly one.", Sai finished his accurate assessment.

Danzo merely nodded accepting each of his words. Words that confirmed what he feared the most, the truth. It wasn't a matter of interpretation or different viewpoints, Asami was definitely one of these invincible juggernauts, or at least on the way of becoming one. Invincible, unless you threw a Hashirma at them or you crushed them by the weight of mass. Neither option was a practicable one.

Danzo had neither one of these God shinobi at his disposal nor the necessary number of bodies under his command, hardly a battalion's worth if he pulled everything together. And the worst, Asami was still at the very beginning of shinobi career and he didn't bet on his new nemesis getting weaker in the years to come. It was now or never, or he would really see the next incarnation of a megalomaniac Madara knocking on his door. And he sincerely hoped this was a day he would never see coming and he wouldn't never allow as long as it was within his capacities.

It seemed he had to take a more active stance in this operation. His hand was slowly wandering towards his disabled arm. How did the old proverb go? It took an Uchiha to beat a Senju, and a Senju to beat an Uchiha. Unfortunately, he was neither a Senju nor an Uchiha. In the end, however, these were merely words and nothing else.

He gripped the arm firmly as an itching feeling appeared in his right eye. From time to time, a crippled Danzo indeed regretted having sacrificed, or upgraded like some might say his right arm and his eye.

Contrary to the cheating Uchiha, he like every other normal shinobi wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth, wasn't born into the right family, wasn't born with natural power and unobtainable privileges. No, no, no, he had to pay for what was simply gifted to Asami and her likes by their birth. Oh, how he hated them, these people you could never catch up with no matter how hard you tried.

But such moments of regret were brief and rare, because in the end these small inconveniences were a small price to pay for accessing the power of the Uchiha. Especially, now that the time had come to use Izanagi and Kotoamatsukami for the sake of the village.

Danzo spoke to three finally ending this never ending debate and finally seeing a path where none was before," Fu, Torune, Sai, order all available Root elements to be mobilised and put on standby. Their services will be required during the Chunin exams and I will need every last man." And a few more.

The trio disappeared and left the old man behind with one certainty. The hours to come would be either one of his master pieces or his downfall, hopefully not the latter.

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A good natured Fumihiko continued with his diverting tactics, "Really? No questions? Then, we should continue with the next part of our presentati…"

He was, however, interrupted by someone. The grey-coated Aburame spoke calmly not allowing his existing anger to shine through," Yes, I have one. Or more precisely, I would have one if our commanding officer was here, Fumihiko."

"Therefore, I ask once again. Where is our illusive Asami? Because we are waiting", the shinobi was drumming his fingers on the desk.

Fumihiko smiled confidently, "Don't worry, Shibi, she is already on the way." Hopefully.

"On the way you say?" the woman joined in an annoyed tone, "Do you mean the same "she is on the way?" like the last three times?"

"Yes. Em, no, I mean no" Fumihiko corrected himself and replied defensively," I assure you, Tsume, that she will come, soon."

"Sure, sure, I hope so. Because we still have roughly 18 minutes. So, our Asami still has time two after us waiting two hours and she really doesn't have to hurry", the angered Inuzuka looked sceptically on her non-existent wrist watch.

The door was slammed open by a rather forceful visitor while Fumihiko how any of the poor hinges had survived this confrontation and why the person in question hadn't simply used a breaching charge instead. Which would have quite frankly achieved the same result.

Surprised by this event, Fumihiko carefully turned his head to spot the noisy intruder. What he saw was Asami, hastily dressed in wrinkled satin, moment was that her pyjama, no unlikely, with unkempt hair and her hands lazily hidden within her way too long black sleeves. And in her mouth was placed an over-dimensioned donut, likely her improvised breakfast. In conclusion, her whole appearance screamed that she had basically overslept and had gotten out of her bed a few just a few minutes ago.

Her eyes swept across the room until she addressed her startled audience for the first time, "Ininininaamamamnmomonnomomnenmenenenementmtntnt"

"Em, what?" her aide understandably understood nothing like the rest of the room. Even the dog with his eye patch looked to be extremely confused. Which was quite an accomplishment.

Asami took her breakfast out of her mouth and repeated quickly without wasting time," I said in a moment."

Foregoing her usual decorum, she greedily devoured her sweet instead of taking small bites. Without showing the smallest hint of shame, embarrassment or guilt, she ignored the precedent events as if they had never existed to begin with and she walked in front of them with all the dignity she could muster. For Asami the past didn't subsist, only the present, and perhaps some kind of future. The girl clasped her hands together and smiled apologetically," Sorry, it appears that I am quite late today as I have encountered some complications that have effectively prevented my arrival. Anyway, time is of the essence now."

"Fortunately, my trusted subordinate seems to have already begun and done the majority of the hard work, which saves us quite some time", she inspected the map on her back," So, Fumihiko, how much time do I still have left?"

.

.

.

"Emm, 15 minutes", Fumihiko was unsure and used his guesstimation.

However, that didn't bother an energised Asami," Excellent, excellent. 15 minutes are plenty. Entire wars have been lost, fought and won within mere 15 minutes, so why shouldn't they be sufficient for our purposes. So let us start then, where do I begin?"

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	37. Arc V Chapter V

**V**

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 **Arc V Chapter V**

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"Where do I begin? Where do I begin?" she repeated the phrase using it as her personal filler sentence in order to gain time to think. Think first, act later. Totally unprepared, an interiorly nervous Asami had now to substitute Fumihiko. Which was in retrospective not one of her brightest decisions, not at all. Asami sighed mentally.

Yes, yes, a truly great idea. Instead, she could have simply allowed him to continue his work while standing next to him and nodding approvingly as if everything he had been saying had been her idea. Moment, everything was her idea. The girl added one more reason to her list why she should have done just that. Yes, that would have been likely the optimal choice.

Regretfully, it was too late now as she had manoeuvred herself into an unfavourable position. Their expecting eyes were already glued to her and she couldn't make a tactical retreat anymore, at least not easily and without compromising her position. So much for her "think first and act later", dammit. Although, after the battle, everyone was the best general.

While her audience was ignorant of her grudging thoughts, Asami maintained a neutral smile. And after waiting a few painful seconds, she cleared her throat purposefully for the theatrical effect. Now it was time to improvise," Ahem, as I am an unofficial master of infinite palavering and never getting to the point, or in general renown for talking enemies and allies alike to death with my personal Talk no Jutsu until they prostate themselves in front of me or I win the majority of my debates by default, let us start then with a brief reiteration of what had, hopefully, already been discussed thoroughly by my most faithful assistant Fumihiko."

A good-natured Asami turned to the tactical map behind her. A few coloured unit counters, a series of marked areas and an array of beautiful arrows. Her lips rose upwards and she smiled happily. From her perspective, it almost seemed like some kind of board game, yes, a board game. The only difference was that she didn't have any dices to roll, which was no significant issue though as they could be organised. And that she was playing here with the lives of real people and not imaginary armies. Well, in this game even losing a single counter meant the death of a few hundred shinobi, vanquished, gone forever. But so much was logical and had to be expected. When Konoha called, they answered. Moreover, a good shinobi had to be prepared for this kind of situations anyway, probably, hopefully, wasn't really her problem.

"What a funny game… I like it", Asami murmured inaudibly while staring at the wall in front of her. Standing behind her, Fumihiko mimicked his superior's action curiously. Seriously, what was she staring at? And was she thinking?He scratched his head. Had she, unlikely as it was but considering that it was Asami everything was possible, discovered the secret meaning of life or what? Or was she really simply nuts, which would honestly explain a lot of things, especially a few of her antics. In the humble opinion of this modest Chunin, the line between genius and insanity was thin, very very thin. And it was sometimes questionable on which side she was currently standing.

Having no idea that the girl was mostly occupied with imagining herself rolling her pair of attack dices successfully, her two sixes and one five against the enemy's two fours, she had won. It seemed luck was on her side today, good to know.

Asami returned to her conscripted audience," Whatever. As you may know, we have, due to unfortunate circumstances I might say, been allotted less resources for this operation than initially expected as well as requested and suggested."

Expressing her dissatisfaction, a fuming Asami continuously wandered from one side to the other to relief her anger. Eventually, she continued with her sleeves behind her back while and her ominously gleaming eyes which kept everyone from moving, or at least dissuaded them strongly from disappearing.

She got herself and her Chakra under control though, mostly. As usual, she probably leaked a few droplets, but these amounts were frankly insignificant," Instead of my desired 8 regular battalions, I have in fact very recently received the news that a variety of very gracious people in the village council whose names I won't mention at this point decided to hand me… Fumihiko, what did these lobotomized armchair generals grant to me instead?"

Asami looked for her assistant who couldn't be that far. Where did he hide from her," So, Fumihiko, what did they give me?"

Fumihiko sensed that this was probably one of her beloved rhetorical questions," Well, technically you got your 8. And two more too, which would make ten in total."

"Yes, yes, that is indeed true. In toto, I have a sizeable force under my command. However, I have no problem in regard to the quantitative aspect of my small army. The crucial issue is the quality." Always the quality, always.

Her furious gaze swept across until she focused on the two Jonin in front of her. And Tsume's wolfdog who cowered on the cold floor. Shrinking together, he pressed his stomach protectively against the ground, intriguing.

Asami rested her black eyes on Tsume's wolfish partner which had an immediate effect. Suddenly, the wolf bared his fangs to her accompanied by a single narrowed eye. What was that? Was that a challenge? Was that supposed to intimidate her or what? She had seen better in her lifetime. And could it be that the little doggy feared her, how cute. Perhaps, it was man's best friend who had the sharpest senses in this room. She kept the eye contact for a few further seconds to assert her dominance over the mongrel. Yes, cower in fear.

A derisive smile appeared on her face when her opponent decided to pull back, but only briefly. Asami had more important things to do than dedicating her attention to this intermezzo.

After this short pause Asami continued, "What we have got are 8 freshly conscripted units from the reserve why are mostly composed of rookie Genin with very dubious quality and fighting power at best. Genin who likely haven't faced a single serious opponent yet in their entire life and whom I wouldn't trust with guarding my morning corn flakes even if my life depended on it. So a big oorah at this point. Oorah", Asami carried on dissatisfied and not the epitome of what would be commonly called motivation.

Standing safely behind her tiny protective figure which based on his assumptions would provide enough cover against a full-fledged Bijudama, Fumihiko rolled his eyes without being seen. She may have an exceptional periphery vision, but even she couldn't have seen that. Provided she didn't have the Byakugan otherwise he was fucked right now.

Yes, she was right, a bunch of Genin and Chunin weren't exactly the dream of every strategist. Nevertheless, weren't her standards maybe a bit to high? To their defence, not everyone could be like her a merciless killer machine at the delicate age of thirteen.

At this moment her assistant decided to speak up," Well, on the bright side, the Hokage has promised us that one of the village elders will send us his best elite shinobi as support. As far as I know, the majority of them are even part of the ANBU or high ranking Jonin."

"Although I never knew and heard that you could have as an elder a few shinobi directly under you command, isn't that something?", Fumihiko stated encouragingly.

"Isn't that something?" Asami's reaction was prompt. The girl turned her, to put it positively, unhappy face towards a clueless Fumihiko as if she had been ready to kill someone right in front of him. Scary, did he do something wrong?

Her voice was audibly strained," Yes, that would be something, as long as these "special reinforcements" wouldn't be all Danzo's men." They were all ex-Root shinobi and associates, every single without exception. Asami knew Root, Asami knew Danzo and it was obvious to anyone graced with a single brain cell that the old goat was planning something specific otherwise he would never have lent her his precious forces so readily. And she didn't like that absolutely.

"Eh? Danzo's men? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Ehm, I heard from a few rumours that Danzo is supposed to be a bit of a shady character. But shouldn't he be nevertheless a fellow leaf shinobi", Fumihiko asked curiously. He noticed how Shibi and Tsune both tensed up when Asami mentioned the name Danzo. Was there something he didn't know?

She sighed tiredly. This was a discussion for another day and another time. "No, no, nothing. Forget it. Danzo is the unquestionable paragon of trustworthiness and camaraderie. I would even trust him my future children if possible. So, don't worry", Asami finished her sarcastic remark and massaged her temples.

Fumihiko had clearly no idea who Danzo or what Root was. How could he as a lowly Chunin. And so did Tsume and her dog, and most likely the silent Aburame too, albeit she wasn't too sure about the latter.

On one side, she had a force of inexperienced Genin pressed into service on whose capabilities she couldn't rely. To be frank, at no point of time she believed that they had the necessary cohesion to really hold the line long enough for her stratagem to succeed. Instead, her more honourable cannon fodder was more likely to flee at the first opportunity should their situation get a bit "rougher", euphemistically spoken. Or do you think these Genin would simply shrug off a casualty rate of 90% and stand their ground without wavering? Certainly not, and certainly not without her placing a blocking detachment and a very suspicious commissar behind their backs. Which sounded like a good idea by the way, some barrier troops and her fight or flight problem would be solved. But where did she get them from?

And on the other side, she had 800 stealthy Root ANBU given to her by the council, or Danzo to be specific. 800 elite shinobi roaming free on the battlefield whose loyalty was dubious at best, not to mention their intentions. Well, they were Danzo's men so it couldn't be anything remotely good for anyone. Nevertheless, she had to use them because she had nothing else available besides them. Even when she only trusted as far as she could throw them.

Confronted with this dilemma, Asami almost despaired and she wanted to bang her head against the nearest wall. A loud banging sound of something very stubborn hitting a wall repeatedly echoed through the room while Shibi, Tsume and her Ninken included were giving the girl who was its source strange looks. Ehm, what was she doing?

Not Fumihiko though who had experienced this kind of situation before. Therefore, it slowly dawned on him that Asami had her head somewhere in the clouds again and had completely forgotten about them here in the earthen realm which tended to happen from time to time. Well, not exactly forgotten, but rather she ignored their existence on a metaphysic level.

Therefore, Fumihiko decided to lend his damsel in distress a hand because the clock was running. And mainly because he was starting to get hungry and he didn't know how her state would last, a few seconds, minutes, an hour?

"Ahem, ehm, Asami?"

She needed a solution. Should she place all of her ANBU on the front lines? For example, something like letting them accidentally march into the enemy to get them all killed? You know, things like this happen in the heat of combat. You lose a platoon here, two battalions there.

"Ehm, Asami?"

Yes, she could do that. And they were part of Root anyway, so nobody would really miss them. And furthermore, she would Konoha some kind of favour by getting rid of them, or something similar.

"Asami?"

Sadly, she would probably have to explain afterwards then how she had managed to lose a not insignificant number of Jonin for no apparent reasons at all besides someone deliberately trying to maim them. And she couldn't exactly make the weather or some mysterious communications issues responsible for that, too many witnesses, too much evidence pointing towards her direction. A series of summary executions? No, that would be also way too obvious if she executed a few hundred shinobi for what, desertion? Cowardice? Raping, pillaging and plundering? No, even to her that seemed a bit far-fetched.

"Asami! Do you hear me?" Fumihiko was slowly getting a bit desperate. Should he use a paper bomb next? No, that would be too extreme. But maybe necessary.

And moreover, she indeed needed them as she didn't enjoy a cornucopia of men and material, lucky bastards. Which meant she had to live with them, somehow, and burry her plans, for now at least. Konoha's generalissimo sighed one last time. Why did she do this again? Good question. The Uchiha suppressed her sudden urge to get violent. She felt how boiling blood demanded her to kick, punch or destroy something nearby to let off steam. Obviously, she didn't do that as that wasn't the right decision. Instead she tried to bury her feelings deep down in her heart which didn't diffuse them though. They begged her to be set free. She denied their request however.

"A-s-a-m-i!"

Eventually the oblivious girl noticed this annoying clamour in the background, someone was calling her. And judging by the voice it was most likely Fumihiko. But why was he so loud? Was that really necessary?

The moment she turned away from the wall in front of her, she noticed that her forehead was slightly hurting. Strange, as if she was smashing her head against something hard. "Ouch", a very grumpy Asami murmured while rubbing her aching spot with her tiny hand.

She looked up to her waiting assistant afterwards showing clearly that she was still in a very bad mood. Once again her emotions got the better of her and the short-tempered her knew this. This was definitely not one of her proudest moment.

" What is?" still influenced by her residual anger, or was it desperation, an irascible Uchiha narrowed her eyes subconsciously. If looks could kill, she would have probably succeeded.

Confused, the girl noticed how Fumihiko appeared to stumble backwards for some reasons. Only slightly, a negligible amount, but nevertheless noticeable.

Fumhiko hesitated at the beginning until he finally gathered his courage," Well, I don't want to say that banging your head against a wall is a rather unproductive mean of passing your time. And I don't want to disturb you, Asami. But…"

"No, no, no, don't play dumb. You mean exactly what you say, Fumihiko", the girl intercepted him.

And that would explain a few things. Why she was suddenly standing in front of a wall. Why her head was still hurting for example. Today was really not her day. It was almost as if she had woken up on the wrong of the bed and some sinister curse had befallen her therefore.

Asami sighed depressed," So, what did you want to say?"

As sudden as it had appeared, her surge of anger dispersed again somewhere into the ether. Was it only her imagination, or was she becoming more and more volatile these days. Nah, nah, probably not. She was always moody to begin with, and most often for the pettiest reasons she could think of. And if for nothing else, then simply for the sake of being moody. Which was really a bad habit and didn't help her to escape this vicious cycle.

Fumihiko smiled and pointed out diplomatically, "Like I said, I don't want to disturb you when you are apparently thinking about something very "important". But, ehm, don't you think that it could be advisable to finish this briefing first?"

He was right. Not that she would ever admit that, nevertheless he was completely right. And there was little she could say now, except for…

"Oops", Asami scratched her head guiltily.

She smiled innocently. Maybe they would buy it, who knew," It seems that I got a bit preoccupied with a few minor thoughts I had. In conclusion, nothing important",

"Really? Nothing important?" Tsume and her dog viewed her both sceptically, almost suspiciously. That slightly hurt. Had she given them any reason to doubt her? Wasn't she always a nice person?

Asami continued her fake smile," No, nothing important."

Only how to fight this campaign with the shittiest troops available and prevent herself from potentially getting backstabbed by fucking Danzo, or whatever this meddling old man was planning. But hey, these were details. And not really the object of open debate. Seriously, she couldn't ask them "any ideas how to dispose of a little army of Root ANBU, discreetly in the best case. Opinions are appreciated."

"Whatever", the woman didn't appear to be convinced but she accepted her response nevertheless.

"Excellent. So now that we have settled this, Fumihiko my friend, where did I stop again? Because I have honestly lost the thread", which was the truth. Asami had literally talked or thought herself into a dead end, not good. What she remembered was that she started with some sort of exposition.

The startled boy blinked a few times before he could react, and so did the rest of the room. Strange, as if she had said something totally unreasonable.

He replied disbelievingly," Ehm, yeah, your intention was to present us, or them to be precise, our battle plan."

" Oh, yeeeeeeeessssss. Exactly, now that you say it", the girl laughed self-deprecatingly and focused on the forgotten map behind her.

Her eyes wandered across the hated piece of parchment. Asami rubbed her chin seriously," No, no. You know what."

"It is already late and I think everyone present looks quite tired, or I feel tired at least", completing her pirouette, the girl shifted towards her surprised onlookers.

"Ergo, let us just call it a day then and save us these minor details for later. Okay?" she asked her companions for their opinion albeit the tone of her voice indicated that such question was purely formal and the answer had already been decided. The circumstances had changed and she had to react accordingly by a few modifications to her strategy.

"Any objections? No?" displaying her typical insincere smile she asked once again. Shibi remained silent as expected, maybe they exist somewhere out there in the known universe but she had never met an Aburame who talked more than the bare minimum necessary. Fumihiko furrowed his eyebrow surprised by her manoeuvre. And Tsume who gave her a cold stare, a classic that never grew old. But why Asami didn't know.

"Excellent, then we see us tomor… No, no, tomorrow I have something else to do", she mused to herself," So let us say Friday, this room at the same time. And this time I am hopefully a bit more punctual, provided the gods of fate have mercy on me."

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After Asami and her unofficial pet had already left the building, Shibi and Tsume wandered together through one of the rarely explored wings the Hokage tower had.

And it was the taciturn Aburame who broke the ice first but not without reasons. Shibi carefully pondered over his choice of words until he finally spoke in the monotonous voice typical for the Aburame clan," So what do you think about her?" It was clear who he meant.

Folding his hands behind his back and continuing his walk, he waited on her reply.

"What I think about her? " her annoyance was clearly written all over her face.

"I don't like her." Yes, so much was pretty obvious a few minutes ago.

"Aren't you a bit quick to judge, Tsume?" his interest piqued and knowing assumingly more than his counterpart, Shibi continued. Being among Konoha's more prominent clans, or more precisely providing a sizeable number of recruits to the ANBU, had its advantages, especially in moments like this. One of the advantages was that you were always rather well informed about people in general, a certain girl included. Albeit he wasn't totally sure whether they were truly the same person, until her very characteristic behaviour confirmed his suspicions today. Her mannerism, her careless attitude, no doubt, it was definitely her.

"Not really. I still don't get it where the Hogake got this brilliant idea from to put an airhead like her in charge of this entire operation, a spoiled brat who has barely completed her academy years and has god knows how her Jonin rank. And on top, this Asami has the nerve to make us wait almost two bloody hours and then "sorry, let us call it off because of whatever reasons that you don't have to know". No respect, no apology, nothing"

The woman clicked with her tongue," Tsk-tsk, seriously, who does her majesty think she is, the future Hokage?"

Perhaps, the most dangerous Kunoichi Konoha's ANBU had currently to offer, backed by a remarkable kill count longer than the menu in a Akimichi restaurant and able to rip them both apart during her lunchbreak if she ever tried. Obviously, the Aburame didn't share this information and kept silent," I don't know. But her character is surely what I would consider "impressionable"."

"Impressionable my ass, I don't care what you call or how you call it, I still don't like her", she fumed.

Shibi reacted more contemplatively," Tsume, I know you and your clan in general, on one way or another, already since a long time. Isn't is it rather atypical for you to develop such a strong dislike for a person you have never met before?"

She stopped on the spot and her firm eyes stared right into his face without the slightest hint of doubt or regret," Maybe."

Tsume resumed her walk while glancing at her animal companion," But since Kuromaru doesn't seem to like her presence, and he is normally a good judge of character in my experience, I don't see any reason to like her whatsoever too. And I am not that stupid to not notice what she had done to him a few minutes ago, does she think I am blind or what?" Her dog appeared to nod affirmatively.

Well, that actually explained more than everything else put together. Do something to the notoriously thin-skinned Inuzuka and their precious dogs and you will be archenemies with them for the rest of your lifetime.

"And why that?" more than mere curiosity moved him this time as he gave her Ninken a brief look.

"Meh, don't know. We can ask him though."

"Kuromaru, what is your opinion?" finally her mood brightened up again. And she received an answer too.

After a few moments of consideration, Kuromaru explained, "Woof? Woof woof arf ruff.

Woof ruff woof arf arf, ruff woof arf ruff ruff woof. Arf arf, woof ruff woof arf ruff woof, arf arf ruff, ruff woof arf ruff woof arf "woof" ruff woof arf arf.

Woof! Woof woof arf... ruff ruff woof woof ruff woof arf woof arf ruff ruff, woof."

"I see", Tsume concluded as if the conversation with her dog had been the most normal thing possible, which it surely wasn't. But who was he to talk, he the one with his insects nesting underneath his skin.

Eventually, she turned her attention back to Shibi," What he says is that her eyes are scary."

Scary eyes? Seriously? "And that is everything?" Shibi furrowed his doubting eyebrow.

Tsume countered lazily, "No, something with her aura being ominous too, whatever that means."

For a brief moment, Shibi hesitated. He hesitated to take his next step as his body refused to move on. Fortunately for him, neither the dog nor Tsume noticed it. He acknowledged her reply with a silent nod. So, he wasn't the only one who felt it, who sensed it, this sudden pulse of Chakra, her Chakra.

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"So, any final questions?" finishing her presentation as planned, Asami took a further bite on her chocolate muffin, oh sweet baked sin made out of sugar and cacao. It had certainly payed off to make a slight detour for her muffin, even when she had lost a bit of time on the way. She had definitely to buy more of them, one, two, three, four, a few thousands. Maybe, she would get a discount.

Her audience stared in complete bewilderment and preferred to stay silent. Somehow their stares were the same they had given her a few days ago.

Powered by the magic energy of sweets, Asami displayed her best encouraging smile, "Don't be shy, there are no stupid question… well, there are stupid questions but not in this case. Therefore, don't hesitate and ask anything you want."

Her words had a slight effect on Fumihiko. None on Shibi or on Tsume who still gave her a cold stare. Come on, even the dog didn't seem to be convinced despite all her sincere enthusiasm. Which was rather depressing and caused her mood to rapidly fall down into a bottomless abyss. Getting people to like her was really not her forte, wasn't it. Not matter how much she tried being nice, she never succeeded and always failed miserably instead. how was that possible?

Ignoring a depressed girl who silently accepted that she would for ever remain an unsympathetic and unloved character, Shibi spoke up," Fumihiko, is she always so unpunctual?"

The boy sighed heavily," Depending on the day, the weather and I personally think the moon phases too, yes, most of the times. You can basically forget Monday. Tuesday is always a gamble if she shows up unless it is raining. Wednesday is quite reliable in my experience. Thursday too as long as there is nothing before afternoon. Friday…"

Someone suddenly interrupted his monologue by softly tipping him on his shoulders. And he knew it could be only one person. This time he had messed up, or he thought so.

He was greeted by her unexpected smile, a smile that seemed to hide sadness more than anything, "You know, Fumihiko, I don't have any problems with you complaining about my slightly unconventional work ethics. But shouldn't you know that I can hear you?"

Instead his little princess puffed her cheeks indignantly," Furthermore, I don't think you can consider 15 minutes as being late. That is still within the academic quarter."

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	38. Arc V Chapter VI

**V**

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 **Arc V Chapter VI**

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It was just a normal day, a day like any other in the life of Nara Satoshi. A shinobi history normally didn't care about. A shinobi whose fate was frankly unimportant. But history did care this time.

Satoshi was one of the many. One of the many faceless ninja Konoha had who worked tirelessly behind the scenes. One whose name wasn't known across the lands and spoken in fear by his enemies provided that they even knew him, which was rather unlikely not to say totally illusory.

He wasn't a Sannin, a White Fang, a Minato, a Kakashi, an Itachi, or a certain girl he had the fortune as well as the misfortune to serve under. Well, technically she wasn't that famous yet. But give her a few years and she would be, undoubtedly.

She had the necessary intelligence, as a Nara he could testify that. The strength, he saw what she could do. And certainly a *cough* healthy *cough* portion of self-confidence, which summarized her pretty well in his opinion. Asami; in defeat, unbeatable. In victory, unbearable. And the rest of the time a little weirdo. Satoshi nodded mentally, especially the last part was true. You practically never knew what was going on in her chaotic mind.

Anyway, he wasn't one of these people. And he knew that he never would be like them, such was the destiny of most shinobi and it sadden him from time to time. Instead he was a simple man of modest goals, the definition of Konoha's abundant mediocrity.

At least, he was an ANBU which meant he wasn't totally worthless, only insignificant in the great scheme of things and compared to grandees of his time. "Stupid genetics and their Kekkei Genkai", Satoshi murmured angrily while passing a variety of empty training facilities and unused barracks. He had a destination and some were expecting him.

And what knew even less people, he was a member of Root, and a quite high-ranking one too even after all these years and their impromptu "official" dissolution, which was less official than you might think.

Sure, on paper they didn't exist anymore, they were now fully integrated into the ANBU and not an autonomous faction. But otherwise, nothing significant happened. No detentions, no demotion, no investigations, no serious consequences, nothing. As if they had never existed to begin with. However, they were all still there and they all had retained their positions.

Honestly, this case was a typical Hiruzen, a lot of talk and no action. Or did the Hokage truly think that an organisation that had operated for years behind his back and even tried to assassinate him would cease to exist from one day to another only because the Hokage himself said so? Okay guys, it is a shame but sadly we have to close down Root. Why? Well, because. Anyway, you can all go home now and see you tomorrow.

It was clear that it wouldn't work and as matter of fact it didn't work, Root was still there and active. Not as openly as in the past but nevertheless. Which wasn't as bad as it sounded. Granted, Root had a bit of a dubious reputation. Okay, correction, a very dubious reputation and admittedly not without reason, thank you Danzo. No seriously, thank you Danzo.

And no, their favourite activity wasn't pushing helpless grannies down the stairs and stealing candy from children. No, they were busy people and had only time to do that on Sundays and Saturdays. And maybe on Fridays between 9:00 and 18:00 when they had a free day, otherwise no.

Joking aside, not every one of them was inherently evil by virtue of simply being a member of Root, albeit sometimes this assumption wasn't that far from the truth.

As some critical members with a little bit of common sense, really, not that much was necessary, had predicted correctly, the way Root trained their younger recruits tended to have a variety of, surprise, surprise, undesired side effects on their psyche and produced overall mixed results, *cough* a bunch of mentally unstable and highly aggressive psychopathic killers with little understanding of the word restraint *cough*.

But hey, who could have thought that crippling children emotionally and letting them kill each other could be a bad idea? Oh, yes, he did and several other ANBU. And miraculously they were right, it was an idiotic idea.

Anyway, as mentioned above, reality was complex, more like a picture dominated by shades of grey and beyond the classical distinction of black and white. Among them were also genuinely good people. Humans who fought and died for Konoha like every other shinobi. Satoshi sighed. Unfortunately, the majority of Root ANBU made the other good 10% look bad.

Slightly annoyed, Satoshi opened the door and entered. Perhaps, he should quit and search for a less troublesome post, some quiet desk job in the Hokage tower. As far as he knew, they were recruiting at the moment.

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"Morning, everyone", Satoshi yawned and joined the eight other Root shinobi. He sat down and expected some kind reply by the rest of the round table, which apparently didn't come though. Instead, he noticed that the general mood wasn't the best judging by their dark looks on their faces. Had someone died here?

What the watchful Nara also noticed was that everyone brooding over an unknown file, a file that was lying directly in front of him too and had the innocent title "deployments orders". You didn't have to be a genius to make a connection between the two.

Ignoring this stinging ominous feeling, the ANBU cleared his throat," Ahem, Noriaki, what are these?"

The shinobi furrowed his cynic eyebrow," What are these? Isn't that obvious, Satoshi? These are what they are, deployment orders and the reason I have called in this lovely meeting."

"Yes, I can tell that much. The question was more like, what are they about and who are they from? From Danzo?" anticipating Noriaki's response, the ANBU grabbed the file and quickly flipped through it. Maybe, he would get now an answer why every single member of Root was put on standby for the entire last week. And as usual, Danzo and his loyal messenger Fu didn't tell them anything particular, only some cryptic be prepared for god knows what and don't ask questions, very motivating.

Noriaki suddenly began to smile in an uneasy way, "Danzo? Not really. It is true that Fu has given me them together with a "special" package from Danzo, but they are not from him. Someone else has written them."

He didn't like the sound of the word "special", he didn't like it at all. And based on everyone's reaction, neither did Subaru, Natsu, Yoshitaka, Renzo, Mitsu, Tamae nor Kinuye. Because in the end Danzo himself was rarely the one who had to pay for his "special" decisions, and not everyone under his command was a mindless drone eager to be discarded at any moment. Satoshi knew perfectly well that the moment the situation turned hot the slow old man was usually quite good at being the first one to run and would drop them all like a hot potato to save his skin, like back then in Ame.

Satoshi's smile briefly faltered," Huh, someone else?" Satoshi continued his quick review. So they were going to encircle the invasion force and annihilate them afterwards, interesting. A bit risky but nevertheless interesting. Especially, the task that was given to them.

Honestly, he had never seen or heard the term "barrier troops" before. It seemed that their primary role was to keep a friendly eye on nearby units and "maintain proper discipline and encourage fugitive elements to return to their designated combat units". Seriously, who was the mastermind all this? It obviously wasn't Danzo. It wasn't Hiruzen, too cautious and was never the great strategistin general. It wasn't Shikaku, too conservative for such a move.

"So, who is it then?" Satoshi had seen enough and focused now fully on his counterparts.

Subaru provided him one of his typical cryptic answers," I think you might know our little princess."

Her? That limited the options a lot and he already had an uncomfortable suspicion who. Why didn't he see that before? Now that he thought about it, it was obviously her. And there was only a single person who carried this specific epithet, and proudly too.

"I know her?"

The not so stoic Natsu crossed his arm and joined the discussion among colleagues," Yes, you know her and as far as I know …"

Satoshi sighed heavily while drumming with his impatient fingers on the table, "I am well aware that you three enjoy playing this kind of I know that you know that we don't know that the secretary of the Hokage knows things with me. But could you finally stop these stupid games and give me the fucking name instead?" Seriously, it was always the same with the tree. Ask one simple question and you got nothing.

The veteran Noriaki reacted with smiling disappointment," That is unfortunate. But isn't it the duty of every proud ANBU to utter as much cryptic nonsense as possible without having the faintest clue what we are talking? After all, we have a daily quota to fulfil, Satoshi."

The ANBU continued melodramatically," And what would the common people think about us? What would they think if we, the venerable ANBU, suddenly started to use comprehensible language? Imagine, sentences a normal illiterate Genin could actually understand instead of classic smug stock phrases like "according to plan", "as anticipated, …", "don't intervene, your help isn't needed", "get out of here and let the professionals take over now"."

"What would they think then", he imitated a clueless Genin," Uhm, wait a moment, perhaps these ANBU are humans like you and me and not so special as they always claim to be, aside from being total assholes."

"Aren't you dramatizing a bit?" Satoshi stated critically.

Noriaki shifted his eyes towards him," Don't you think we have a reputation to protect? Otherwise we would be nothing more than a bunch of overrated and overpaid Jonin with fancy masks and code names."

What a drama queen, completely exaggerating as usual. Satoshi rolled his eyes visibly and replied more realistically," Not would be, we **are** overrated and overpaid Jonin with fancy masks and code names."

His colleague countered laughingly," Yes, that is absolutely true, we are. But the entire point is that nobody beside us ANBU has to know that. At least until everyone present here has already retired, what happens afterwards is a problem for the next generation." Everyone else at the table nodded affirmingly, except for him. Okay he nodded too, but only slightly.

"Uhm, ehm… never mind, forget it", there were more important things than the blatant misuse of Konoha's defence budget. But they weren't the only ones, the Army and ONI, not to mention every other organisation, embezzled money too. Therefore, he assumed it was kind of ok, somehow.

Satoshi sighed, "Anyway, then who do we have the honour to serve under?" Immediately the mood in the room shifted, the difference was notable.

Noriaki's smile faltered and he rubbed the bridge of his nose," Subaru, could you please take over."

"Sure, sure."

"As the rest of us already knows, our commander is her haughtiness Asami herself", finally someone provided him with the desired information, it only took him half an eternity, applause, applause. So he was indeed right but it didn't explain this subtle gloom of impending doom.

"And what is the problem then? In my experience, she is quite capable, albeit her concept of leadership is sometimes slightly "unconventional"."

Subaru remained silent and Natsu came to his aid. The shinobi leaned back on his chair and took a breath," You see, Satoshi, it has nothing to do with her capabilities… although. No, scrap that, it has everything to do with her capabilities, sadly."

No, no, no, no, no. No. Satoshi had an uncanny feeling where this was going and he didn't like it. It reminded him too much of Ame, the luckiest escape he had ever made, and a certain Rinnegan wielder. "Uhm, I can't follow."

Natsu looked into his eyes," I know. The problem is not our "official" mission."

No. No. No.

"What is problematic, however, is the unofficial part of our assignment, to be more precise one of Danzo's beloved special missions."

Oh, come on. This was not fair. Why was it always them who got this suicidal missions? Yes, they were Root ANBU but he didn't subscribe for this shit. This was Ame all over again. Hopefully, this time without a red haired maniac who was trying to beat him to death and without getting your fucking soul eaten.

Natsu and stood up and marched towards him to hand his present, a folder, thin and light.

"What is this?" Satoshi asked for the dreaded confirmation.

Overcoming his temporary depression, Noriaki looked up again, towards him" Our real objective, our primary target, and the necessary information to kill her."

In an incomprehensible sense of detachment, the ANBU took possession of the file. But it wasn't his will, it wasn't him who did that. His hands touched the soft paper. But he didn't feel anything. His eyes looked at the single pages focused on every minuscule detail. But he didn't see anything.

Separated from his physical body, Satoshi was the observer of his action without being part of them, captured in a state of transcendental happiness. Either that, or his mind was unable to cope with reality at the moment. Based on his assumption, the latter was more likely.

He turned to the first and stared at her picture for the following seconds. He didn't hope to find anything specific. He only found a cute little girl and not the natural calamity she was instead. In general, she appeared to be quite harmless based on the picture.

"Asami, Asami", Satoshi murmured her name while studying her vita and a lot of useless data. Although she firmly protested that black wasn't a "real" colour according to the notes below, black was apparently her favourite one. Really surprising, who could have predicted that, *cough* everyone with a minute of life time knowing her *cough*?

"What did you say before? We need to kill her, right?" the ANBU targeted Noriaki albeit the question was more directed to everyone in this room. He wanted to make a point.

"Yes."

"We all know who this Asami is?" he was calm.

"Yes."

"Furthermore, we know what she is potentially capable of?" he was still calm, no need to worry.

"Yes."

"And we know that the probability is high that nobody will survive this, right?"

"Nah, that is quite pessimistic. Let us say, it is more like a 50-50 chance depending on the circumstances."

Satoshi put the notes aside and gave his counterpart his best stare, a mixture of scepticism and sarcasm," 50-50 and depending on the circumstances? I will let my men know that. "Don't worry only half of you will die today, and if you are lucky you are not one of them." That is highly motivating, isn't it?"

"Anyway, now my last question. Considering everything I have mentioned before, why are we even doing this?"

Noriaki furrowed his surprised eyebrow, and so did the rest of their little group," What do you mean?"

Satoshi explained in a conciliatory manner," Sure, we all here are a part of Root and other various thingies. Like you and me, some since the beginning, some since a few years, and some have only joined recently."

"But from a motivational standpoint, why are we doing this? As a matter of fact, I have no problem with his Danzoness deciding to fuck around with someone else. However, how should I put it, couldn't he do that on his own, alone, and preferentially without getting us involved as collateral damage?" Satoshi asked in a sweet suggestive tone. After all, it was worth a try, and with a bit of luck on his side he might even succeed. He could see it in their eyes, he wasn't the only one who wasn't all too enthusiastic about this special mission.

.

.

.

"I think Satoshi has certainly a point, hasn't he? What is your opinion, Noriaki?" Subaru was the first to join his side while Satoshi was looking interestedly at the rest of their little group. What would be their reaction? And how many would follow his example?

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Noriaki cleared his throat," Ahem, now that we have concluded this discussion, let us return to something more productive. How do we kill her? Any suggestions? Because aside from his typical and very creative "engage the target" and classified information like what her favourite food and phrase is, Danzo hasn't given us, as usual, anything more concrete."

Satoshi ignored his question as he was still recuperating from his previous defeat. To summarize, his personal rebellion had failed after he had lost the vote 4 to 3 with two abstentions. A narrow defeat but nevertheless a defeat. Thus his proposal of "adapting a more neutral stance in this confrontation" was rejected, dammit.

He had assumed correctly that Subaru and Mitsu would side with him and three diehard Danzo supporters Yoshitaka, Renzo and Kinuye against him. But what he hadn't expected though was Tamae as well as Natsu deciding to abstain and Noriaki stabbing him into the back when he needed him the most. Satoshi clicked his annoyed tongue. This was the trouble with free votes, you never knew how they would turn out beforehand.

" Kill her? That is quite easy. A bit old-fashioned perhaps for these modern times, but simply find something sharp and pointy and stab her right through the chest. Ideally, somewhere around here. I can guarantee you it will work", Natsu picked up the question and pointed on the area around his heart. Easier said than done.

Everyone else, however, gave him a slightly patronizing look and the Nara crystallised their collective thoughts," Thank you for your contribution, Natsu, but I don't think Asami will do us this favour and die peacefully by walking accidentally into of our kunai. Or it is at least rather unlikely, I mean extremely unlikely."

"Do you have a better idea then, Satoshi?" Natsu asked calmly unimpressed by his previous reply.

"No, I don't", Satoshi countered bluntly.

"What do you mean you don't?"

"I mean what I say, I don't. I don't have a better idea. That doesn't really matter, however, as long as every idea is necessarily a shitty one. There is no solution to this problem", Satoshi's voice betrayed his inner resignation.

Noriaki furrowed his curious eyebrows," Explain?"

He sighed heavily," Aside from reading a few lifeless pages about her, have you ever met Asami in person, Noriaki? Has anyone of you ever met her in person, seen her fight, stood at her side? No, you haven't.

Satoshi paused briefly," But I have. and I can assure you the girl isn't someone to be taken lightly. Asami has an entrance in the bingo books for a specific reason, and certainly not for her good looks. Ultimately, Asami is a S-class Kunoichi and you should therefore not forget a simple fact. If we fuck this up she will murder us all without hesitation. And then we are all dead.

Not the kind of dead like in these ninja novels you read when you were young where you comfortably lie on the ground and stand up after a few seconds like nothing happened. Or like in the case of the character that get revived ad infinitum after each chapter because the readership likes them and the author doenst have the balls to them let die in peace. No, I mean dead dead, finito."

His words still lingered in the room and had a visible effect on the other participants," Anyway, the point is. No matter what we do we should be careful and keep in mind that we are playing here with the fire, one that can easily turn into crispy chips."

.

.

"Thank you for your observations, Satoshi, we will keep them in mind", Noriaki deflected with a polite smile.

"Yeah, yeah, hopefully", Satoshi dismissed him a wave of his hand and what came afterwards. He had done everything he could to avoid this fate and in a certain sense he had enough now. Perhaps, he should indeed abandon the sinking ship before it was too late.

His common sense told him to do so, and his common sense had disappointed the Nara rarely. Nobody would miss him if he was for example ill on the day of the invasion. Some kind of very contagious disease he had contracted with a long menacing sounding name. Something like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, very nasty stuff, his Iryo-nin advised him to better stay at home.

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Asami deflated her cheeks and returned to her serious look enriched with a touch of ever present benevolent suspicion.

The girl addressed two of her auditors, three if you included the dog," Joking aside, does anyone still have a question? Because this will be the last time you see me personally until the Chunin exams and on that day time will be a relatively precious resource. And I don't the intention to waste it on answering silly questions. Therefore, ask now or regret it later."

"Alternatively, you can still contact Fumihiko who will be available for additional information", without turning around, Asami pointed at the Chunin behind her. Or to be more precise, she simply pointed past her shoulder and was hoping that he was standing somewhere there. Although she couldn't be that far off as she could determine his position by his Chakra.

In the background, Fumihiko waved with his hand and smiled in way that appeared to be rather forced than voluntary. A detail which demonstrated Tsume as well as Shibi who again was the dominant actor in this relationship, poor boy.

Finally, someone held up a hand. And it was surprisingly the stoic Aburame with their beloved monotony," Yes, I have one."

Asami wore a happy expression," I am listening."

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	39. Arc V Chapter VII

**V**

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 **Arc V Chapter VII**

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Shibi cut straight to the point and didn't let distract himself from Asami's happy smile that gave him a feeling of profound uneasiness like everything else about the girl," Why do you want to deploy the ANBU directly to the front line, Asami?"

Because I didn't trust these Root fuckers and I wanted them to die a gruesome death as soon as possible, or at least post them somewhere where they couldn't do anything stupid. And as long as she had them placed them in the first line with the rest of her little army, they couldn't do practically anything without being too obvious. That would have been an honest answer, but clearly she couldn't say that.

Instead, Asami maintained her beam," Is there some kind of problem, Shibi? Because I don't see why that should be particularly problematic. Shouldn't our esteemed ANBU see a bit more action?" Her eyes, however, grew suspicious as she observed the man more attentively.

Shibi didn't react, however, and took his time," It is not really that problematic, but wouldn't it be a better idea to keep the ANBU in the reserve?"

Asami furrowed her interested eyebrow," Care to explain?" The question was quite redundant as she already knew what he was about to say. Apparently, he wasn't the ineptest shinobi she had ever met, which was probably the reason Shikaku recommended her to pick him as a subordinate. Obviously, she followed his suggestion and trusted in the Nara's wisdom. Nevertheless, she still didn't get why he also recommended Tsume. Had the woman some hidden qualities she didn't see? Unlikely.

"Like I said, I don't think that it is advisable to use the ANBU like normal front line troops by splitting them up and attaching them to separate units. This way we would waste much of their combat potential."

"So, what is your suggestion then, Shibi?" Asami commandeered a nearby chair and sat down right in front of him.

They were only a few metres apart and her eyes met his dark glasses, but he didn't yield, admirable," A mobile reserve."

"A mobile reserve?" Asami blinked because she couldn't believe it. The man actually knew what a reserve was. This was a miracle of unprecedented scale and signified that she wasn't only surrounded by illiterate idiots. Perhaps there was still hope for Konoha even without her, which was pleasant to hear.

"Yes, we…"

After she had regained her faith in mankind, Asami interrupted him armed with a pleasant smile," As much as I do like backhand blows and manoeuvre warfare in general, I have to disappoint you, Shibi. I have already considered something similar and have come to conclusion that it is not practicable."

Which wasn't true, it was in fact a fantastic idea, one that could have been hers. Perhaps because she would have done exactly the same if fate hadn't thrown her a few pebbles in her path, namely Danzo and companions. Why could nothing be ever easy? Asami sighed and crossed her legs.

"But as I have repeatedly said before, we are already seriously understaffed as it stands now and we simply don't have necessary men to form a tactical reserve, or at least not without dangerously weakening our two main thrusts. In conclusion, our resources are remarkably limited and we would need more of everything, but that is unfortunately not possible. We have to work with what we have and therefore we can't spare our ANBU, Shibi. Because they have to pay the price of victory too."

It had certainly nothing to do with the fact that she didn't like idea of having 800 Root ANBU behind her back and them potentially doing what they please and without her supervision. Especially, if she didn't have the option to maintain a tight iron grip on them, a very tight grip. She would rather die than giving these fuckers a carte blanche. Furthermore, Shibi and Tsume didn't have to know that she had given them rather specific orders to boost "morale" among the troops if necessary.

"So, do you have anything to add, or was that everything, Shibi?" Asami looked towards him and hoped that this was the case. But it wasn't and she regretted having asked them about their opinions. Because normally, you didn't expect that one day someone might actually do the unfathomable and ask a question if you told them," does anybody still have a question?"

The surprisingly chatty and critical Aburame took another breath. Seriously, she had never seen an Aburame talk this much before," Yes, I have. Is it really a good idea to weaken the right flank in favour of the left flank, Asami? Isn't a ratio of 5:3 a bit unbalanced?"

Asami didn't react and shifted in her chair until she tilted her head," Unbalanced? I think that is rather a matter of perspective, Shibi. Although I have to admit that both flanks were originally supposed to be equally strong before certain modifications were made, right, Fumihiko?"

The girl turned her head backwards and Fumihiko confirmed," Well, more or less, until you decided to change everything."

"Yes, yes, that is true", a diabolical Asami smiled," But you don't have to worry about the force distribution because I can assure you that 3 battalions plus two companies of ANBU will be sufficient enough for our purposes. Because it only means that our friends on the right flanks have to work a bit harder to achieve their objectives in time with less men and material, which shouldn't be that much of problem, however. After all, the right flank can still rely on me." Proud as usual, Asami pointed at herself. To her apparent confusion, however, she noticed that the room had suddenly grown very silent.

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* * *

"You?" Tsume eyed the girl critically as if she doubted the princess's ability to fight, which she did. She might be admittedly better at all this command stuff and strategy thingy, but she didn't think that her high-born pampered ass would be of any use in a real fight.

"Yes, me, or do you have a problem with that, Tsume?", Asami gave her an irritated stare and the woman reciprocated.

"Ahem, what she meant to say was that we didn't expect you to personally participate in the attack, Asami," Shibi cleared his throat and deescalated before the situation turned hot.

Asami was confused, very confused," Eh, what? Come again because I think I didn't hear right?" Did he really propose right now that she shouldn't be deployed? No, no, no, that was out of question.

" Asami, you should keep in mind that you are the commanding officer here. You can't simply go wherever you please and do whatever you want because …", Shibi spoke in a manner that reminded her of Shikaku, way too much of Shikaku. Had they perhaps served together? Possible considering their similar age and it would explain his recommendation. Anyway, she had once a similar discussion with the Nara about the same topic too, one that ended inclusive when they finally agreed on not agreeing on anything.

The girl rose from her increasingly uncomfortable chair and approached Shibi," I see, I see. So, I should stay safely in your opinion in my command bunker far away from all the fighting and give my orders to the troops because it is my responsibility, Shibi?"

"Not exactly, but yes."

Asami sighed and strode towards the nearest window to calm her mind, looking into the horizon always in this kind of situations," Fumihiko, what do you think?"

"Well, Shibi isn't entirely wrong from a technical standpoint. It will be a bit tricky to execute such a complicated operation without an effective leadership and with you going on a little front line adventure", Fumihiko acted innocently, but he was nevertheless right. It wasn't that advisable for the commander to be absent when she was needed the most. Fortunately, she had predicted this and had prepared also a solution because she would certainly not forego all the fun.

"Little adventure, little adventure, little adventure…", Asami repeated the word with a sense of unfulfilled longing and excited by the fact that the Kunoichi in her might see finally some action again. The Uchiha sighed in regret. What was the last time that her sword had tasted blood? Regrettably, that was quite a while ago, almost too long ago, and that had to be rectified.

" Well, Fumihiko as well as Shibi, you are both correct, but ultimately it doesn't matter much."

"Thanks to the fact that I have to be, unfortunately, somewhere else that day, I won't be available, or rather present, for the majority of time anyway." Asami rolled her eyes, stupid Chunin exams and stupid Hokage.

"As a consequence, I won't be in charge of this operation, or at least not directly and besides on paper."

And more important, it was a considerable waste of resources and potential to give someone like her an actual commanding position. Her talents were much more useful in the field. Especially, if you consider that she and her ancestry could bring more firepower to bear than her little strike force combined. But that they neither had to know nor should know.

"Eh?" Fumihiko appeared to be confused like the rest of the auditors, but he presumed correctly that his little princess was trying to dodge a lot of annoying work, again. The sole question who was her victim this time?

Tsume took the word," And that means what?"

Completing her pirouette, a happy Asami shifted towards her audience and hid behind a smokescreen of words," That means that I have decided to devolve authority and delegate overall command to a group of competent people more suited for the task instead of me."

"A who might be these "competent people", Asami?" asked the calm Aburame who had already anticipated that the girl would leave most of her duties to someone else and take a more active part during the invasion, which were quite pleasant news. Shibi smiled briefly. After all, Asami was still Asami and having her on your side made your life considerably easier, provided that she was indeed as good as rumours claimed her to be.

"The people in question are currently right in this room, and they are right in front of me. Because I think that I will put you and Tsume in charge of the "stronger" left flank as long as that is acceptable to you both?"

The Aburame remained silent until he eventually nodded acceptingly," And who is going to be in command the left flank?" Who was her mysterious second man?

A beaming Asami looked at Fumihiko who didn't like her mischievous grin at all," I have already a suitable candidate in mind."

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* * *

Despite the fact that their meeting had already been dissolved, Fumihiko followed after Asami because he had something to talk with her, or rather he tried to follow after her, which wasn't that easy as it sounded if you had lost sight of her. Firstly, she had the very annoying habit to instantly disappear into thin air as if she had the ability to spontaneously disintegrate into subatomic particles if you didn't keep an eye on her. One moment, and poof, Asami was gone like a spectre.

Fumihiko put his head around another corner, but he had no luck and she wasn't there. Nevertheless, she had to be somewhere nearby as his target couldn't have come that far yet. Secondly, her steps were unnaturally light and it was therefore hard to find her after she had made her escape. And thirdly, Asami was quite short, or rather "stealthy" euphemistically speaking and could be easily overlooked if you weren't careful.

As a consequence, all these things combined made the girl exceedingly difficult to locate once she was on the run, as if she was some kind of ninja…. Oh, yes, he had almost forgotten it, Asami was a ninja. Fumihiko scratched his head and derided his own stupidity. Fumihiko sighed and gave up his unsuccessful search, Asami had gotten away… Fumihiko stopped as he heard a soft humming just in front of him, only a few metres away. He didn't recognize the melody, nevertheless it had a calming effect on him. Was it a song? He wasn't sure, but what he could say was that the source was certainly a girl he knew.

"Hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm-hm."

"Hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm."

"Hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm-hm."

"Hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm- hm."

Fumihiko pursued her before the fugitive girl could get away further.

A smirk crossed her face as Asami stopped her walk, "Ah, so, have you finally found me, Fumihiko?"

"Eh?" Fumihiko realised that her words didn't make any sense unless she…

He was a bit disappointed, "You knew…"

"That you were searching me. Yes, I knew, or to be more precise I assumed it. But to be fair, it was quite obvious that you were trying to follow me because you aren't exactly the stealthiest person I have ever met, Fumihiko. You should really work on your basic ninja skills, otherwise you will never advance to the rank of Jonin…", Fumihiko ignored the latter part of her little speech and the fact that Asami sounded more and more like his mother. Have you done your homework? Have you cleaned your room? Have you eaten your spinach?

Banishing these strange thoughts about her being his mother, Fumihiko shook his head," If you knew, then why didn't you stop and wait for me?"

.

.

.

"Hm, that is indeed a good question", Asami was stroking her chin philosophically.

"I am not sure, but I think was merely curious how long it would take you to find me. And as it seems, you have succeeded more or less, albeit I had to help you a bit", the girl smiled and gave him a brief applause while Fumihiko realised that her humming was no coincidence.

"Anyway, what does my most trusted vassal desire from me?" Did she really call him her vassal? He appreciated that she considered him her most trusted follower, but nevertheless…

Fumihiko scratched his head. He was nervous and unsure how to formulate his problem," Well, as you might have already heard, I was recently put in charge of the right flank and am now in command of…"

Asami gave him a strange look as if he had done something very silly.

" I hope for your mental health that you realise that this occurred barely… ", Asami looked symbolically at her wrist," five minutes ago and that I was the one who appointed you?"

"Ah, yes, right", Fumihiko laughed apologetically while Asami rolled her eyes.

"What I want to say is, do you really think that is a good idea to choose me, and not someone else?"

"Why that?" Asami didn't seem to grasp the issue.

"For example, I am only a simple Chunin and I don't have that much experience with this kind of things…"

"Hm, I see", the girl drew the flat side of her sword.

" Could you please kneel down a moment?" she asked kindly, albeit it was obvious that she had something in mind.

Nevertheless, a very confused Chunin obeyed her decree and kneeled.

"Excellent", Asami put her blade on his lowered shoulders and dubbed him," By the undemocratic powers vested in me by the Hokage and the village council, I, Minami Asami, declare you, Nakamura Fumihiko, hereby a Jonin of Konohagakure no Sato."

A playful Asami sheathed her weapon and smiled motherly," See, problem solved. And congratulations, Fumihiko, you are now a Jonin, even though I can't believe how quickly you have grown up."

"While we are at it, do you want any kind of further field promotion? Captain, Mayor, Colonel? What rank to you want because they are for free today. Is there something, Fumihiko?"

The Jonin's incredulous eyes were fixed on the little princess as he stood up," No, nothing. But can you even do this?"

Asami was perplexed," Do what?"

"Promoting random people to Jonin", Fumihiko explained the obvious.

"Hmm, most likely not. But on the other hand, it is nowhere written that you can't do it. So, I think it should be theoretically kind of legal", the girl mused and tipped her chin.

"Nevertheless, I am wondering which promotion you are talking about, Fumihiko? As far as I can remember I haven't done anything like that, right?"

The Jonin blinked bewildered," Ehm, I am talking about my promotion…"

"Your promotion? I didn't know that you have become a Jonin, Fumihiko. Anyway, congratulations, when did that happen?" ? ? ?

Thankfully, he was eventually liberated from ignorance as he realised she was playing with him, as usual. He sighed in resignation.

As a consequence, a smiling Asami pinched his cheeks with a surprising amount of strength in her tiny hands," It seems we finally understand. Therefore, if anyone asks, then you didn't get your Jonin rank from me after I have arranged the necessary paper work."

"And you don't have to worry, because I have seen and met people who have become Jonin and even Chunin under much more dubious and pecuniary circumstances than you. In summary, you aren't the only one and I hope you will be an excellent Jonin, Fumihiko. After all, I need brain and not muscles this time, and you are exactly the right candidate for this, aren't you?"

Fumihiko was pleasantly surprised that Asami placed so much trust in him, perhaps Asami cared about him than he had initially thought. His primary concern was something else, however, "Aasaammi, coouulldd you plleaase stop pinnncching mmme, you arre hurrrttting me."

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Asami was positioned in front of a mirror as she was waging a war against a bitter enemy, an ill-fitting collar," Damnable collar." There was no beauty without pain, or rather no beauty without the according Sisyphean labours, which was in her opinion a more accurate, albeit exaggerated, assessment.

Fortunately, she didn't need to go to such lengths as it wasn't that much necessary to correct this crisis. It was a trivial, insignificant, not to say unimportant detail, but her inner perfectionist didn't agree with this sentiment. Her collar was neither trivial nor insignificant. In fact, it was quite an important detail.

After all, she had to be presentable for the Chunin exams and what would follow, the day she had waited since almost a month. Asami didn't know what today would bring, but it would be hopefully interesting. And if she died, then she would at least make for a beautiful corpse, a very beautiful corpse. Not that it mattered, however, as she didn't tend to die that easily.

After Asami had finally completed her attire, Asami the aestheticist inspected the mirror again and was pleased with the end result of her work, marvellous.

Clad in comforting black, Asami smiled as she was now almost ready to go, almost. One problem remained, however," To armoured, or not to be armoured, that is the question."

While brooding over her decision, the girl picked up her ANBU armour which hadn't seen much use recently like the majority of her former ANBU gear. A nostalgic Asami touched the forgotten metal covered by a thin layer of dust and felt how they had become relics of the past, of an era that had already ended and would never come back. They weren't her happiest memories, but they were nevertheless her memories and every parting still hurt.

The girl discarded the armour and the according ANBU mask, their time was over now, her time in the shadow was over. Asami wouldn't need them in the upcoming battle, neither the armour as had her Susanoo nor the mask to hide her eyes from the world, at least not actively. Instead, Asami needed a few more pouches, because you could never have enough of them, and her trusted sword, which she wouldn't surrender to anyone this time.

Grabbing her scabbard, a motivated Asami moved out. Now she had only to find the arena, which shouldn't be, however, that difficult to spot considering its size. North? South? West? East? The girl had four options, but which one was the right direction?

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Today was a good day. Seriously, it was a good day. Against all expectations and all probabilities, a hadn't been late a happy girl and she wasn't even the last one to arrive. Therefore, champagne for everyone, cheers. No, no, a lovely blonde fellow beat her in that regard and claimed this position for himself together with a certain absent Uchiha. Which made her in turn wonder, as unlikely as it was, if the tendency of coming late lied perhaps in her genes?

A delighted Asami leaned her body on the railing and observed the first match from the assigned stances, Neji vs Naruto, which wasn't that interesting as the outcome was already predetermined, the victor certain. And she didn't doubt a second that the Hyuga should win this quite easily with his experience and literally a life's worth of training.

Konoha's prankster could never hope to overcome this obstacle unless fate decided to intervene in his favour, or unless her favourite Jinchuriki had finally got his lazy ass up and had done something useful with his favourable Uzumaki genetics and possibly Minato's raw talent, not to mention all the Chakra slumbering deep within him. The boy had the instruments, but it was highly unlikely that he would use them to their real potential.

And therefore, Neji would not only win this, but he deserved to win this match in Asami's opinion, even though he was a total asshole and a proper Uchiha like her would always wipe the floor with a traditional and hereditary enemy like the Hyuga if she got the opportunity.

The proctor signalled the start of the match and the fight began.

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	40. Arc VI Chapter I

**VI**

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 **Author's note:**

Are shinobi mostly minions who follow their respective Kage in blind obedience and adoration accompanied by an unhealthy personality cult? Perhaps, perhaps not. Nevertheless, critical thinking doesn't seem to be a particular strength of your average ninja and they remind me more of the "I was just following orders" and "I didn't know about anything" types.

Could this kind of unquestioned authority be abused by a certain party with dishonest intentions, *cough* Danzo *cough*, that has no scruples about forging orders and misdirecting/ misinforming people in general? As sure as the sun rises in the east.

Could this lead to a catastrophic outcome for everyone involved? Who knows.

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 **Arc VI Chapter I**

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Satoshi had a bad feeling, a very bad feeling. Nevertheless, he stood up this morning and didn't stay at home like originally planned, which was a brilliant idea that he was already deeply regretting. Even though he was faking a "severe" illness and everything he was doing currently went against all of his self-preservation instincts, he decided to join his fellow ANBU in their demise. In summary, it wasn't a good day to die when you didn't know the reasons why.

After spotting the rest of his fellow ANBU, Satoshi approached their little group and was immediately greeted by a smiling Noriaki," Who do we have here, if that is not our Satoshi. What does lead you here, aren't you supposed to be sick?"

Satoshi didn't give up his act, yet," *cough*, I am supposed to be many things, Noriaki, *cough*. Luckily, I am still in a good enough condition to attend this mission."

"That is pleasant to hear, and I thought you would only simulate to make yourself scarce, like the last time and the time before, Satoshi"

"*cough*, I don't know what you are talking about, *cough*? Who would do such a thing, certainly not me, Noriaki."

"Whatever you say", Noriaki rolled his eyes.

"I simply a little hypochondriac and worried about my future health, *cough*. But don't worry, I tried, I tried really hard not to come. In the end, however, I am still here and I didn't leave you alone with the leviathan in human form. After all, I couldn't let you all die without me, *cough*. That would be slightly irresponsible from my side."

Noriaki was amused like the rest of the present Root ANBU," Ah, that is the Satoshi we love and miss."

"Sure, sure. Anyway, what is our final battle plan then? Throwing enough men at her until we can bury her under our corpses?" Satoshi joked, or rather he tried to joke because this wasn't funny at all, especially when it was them who were the corpses in question.

.

.

Subaru replied," To be honest, you aren't that far from the truth, Satoshi."

The ANBU gave them an incredulous look," I told you so during our last meeting and I tell you so now, you hopefully know that trying to defeat Asami by attrition is a terrible idea."

Noriaki response followed promptly," We know, but do have a better option?"

"No, not really. Nevertheless, it is a competition between us and the behemoth on the other side if we run first out of men or the girl out of Chakra", Satoshi looked around," And judging by our numbers, that is not exactly a contest that will end in our favour." They had two battalions of ANBU, eight companies, but would that suffice?

Not if Asami started to throw around with her explosives and turn the entire area into an inhabitable moonscape, which was, however, highly likely. Because one thing was sure in his experience, the pyromaniac girl loved explosions, small ones, medium ones, big ones, and swords, but primarily explosions. And if she decided to drop the same thing on them she did on Shimabara, then it was game over, for all of them, her included. And then they could be happy if Konoha wasn't a smouldering crater after their little stunt.

Subaru accepted his views with a surprising amount of calmness," That is true, Satoshi. Luckily, we aren't completely alone, though, we have got some reinforcements for this mission."

That was new. The ANBU furrowed his dubious eyebrow," And who are these reinforcement?" Danzo was powerful man, but even his resources finite and he couldn't yet create shinobi out of nowhere. They had to come from somewhere else.

Noriaki clarified, "Fu didn't say anything specific, but he promised us that he would organize a few additional troops to soften up resistance before we go in and mob up the rest."

"So, we use them as cannon fodder and pray that we don't get all slaughtered afterwards?" Satoshi summarized their strategy.

Subaru added, "Yes, more or less. We get in and from there on it is a gamble if we take her out first or she us, but otherwise it is business as usual."

Business as usual? Satoshi wasn't really convinced. Nevertheless, he kept silent as even his endless pessimism knew its boundaries and a tiny bit of optimism didn't hurt from time to time," I see. And when does the entire fun start then?"

Subaru scratched his head," That is the complicated part."

"Why that?"

"You see, killing someone like Asami won't go exactly unnoticed among the village council. There will be questions afterwards, questions that have to be answered, especially if everything doesn't go smoothly."

"And that means, Subaru?"

"We need a pretence, and a very good one too if we get caught."

That sounded logical and sensible, but there was a tiny little problem," And where are we supposed to get this magical pretence?"

"That is not a big issue", Noriaki presented proudly an opened scroll," After all, I have this."

Satoshi began to read and quickly noticed what was so important about the piece of parchment, what they were about to do. It was a direct order from the Hokage, stamped and sealed. But how did they get their hand on something like this? The ANBU looked up incredulously and expected a reply.

" Fu gave it to me this morning", Noriaki tried to dispel his confusion, which didn't work, however, as Satoshi got only more confused. This was atypical, very atypical.

It was as if Danzo finally discovered that he should use his brain cells once, commendable, before acting instead of relying on his stupendous luck. Considering all the bullshit the old man had done over the years and had got away with, two things were sure for Satoshi, Danzo had balls of steel and literally more luck than sense. Because they amount of evidence that Danzo and Root in general left behind that was staggering and it constantly amazed him that the old man still had his head attached to his body, which was honestly a miracle.

Keep in mind, they were directly responsible for Shisui's death, one of the most skilful shinobi the village ever had. Nevertheless, there were no repercussions as they were extremely lucky that Shisui committed "suicide" and Itachi kept his mouth shut.

They did not only fail to kill the young Kakashi to retrieve his Sharingan, but also got their cover blown in the process with Kinoe defecting. But fate decided otherwise and they didn't suffer any consequences for nearly murdering the most promising shinobi of his generation, Kakashi's lips were sealed. On top of everything, they attempted to assassinate Hiruzen, but nothing happened and the Hokage graciously overlooked the misconduct of single rebellious elements within Root as they didn't represent the entirety of the organisation. And not forgetting, these were only the rather well-known cases and the tip of the floating iceberg. But you didn't get this from him. After all, Root was very honest and would never do anything illegal because that would be illegal.

Therefore, it was frankly incomprehensible to Satoshi how Danzo was still alive and didn't get executed for high treason. Like he said, the old man was very, very lucky throughout all these years. Because the only other explanation was that Hiruzen knowingly ignored all the acts of his old friend and even tolerated them, which was, however, highly unlikely. Hiruzen was kind man, he would never allow that to happen, right?

Satoshi was still staring at the scroll, "So, in summary, this will be a false flag operation and our objective is to cause an "accidental" breakdown of negotiations, right?"

"Yes, exactly, we need provoke an escalation, which shouldn't be too difficult considering her infamous temper", Noriaki nodded in confirmation.

One question still remained, however, a very important question. Satoshi furrowed his eyebrow," And who precisely has the honour to play our agent provocateur and bait the dragon?" He was sure it wouldn't end well and he already commemorated the unlucky bastard who got this job.

"Good that you ask, because we were right about to determine our candidate and you, Satoshi, are lucky that you have just arrived in time to participate."

"Yeeeessss, that is great, really great", Satoshi replied with unprecedented of enthusiasm. Yes, he should have arrived a few minutes later.

"And how do we chose our "candidate"?" he was tempted to say victim.

Noriaki took a few sticks out of his pouch and smiled deviously," That is rather easy."

"Because nobody has volunteered for this task…" Satoshi rolled his eyes. Who would have thought that, no volunteers for a suicide mission, surprising, right? "we let fate decide, we are drawing. And our loser will then have the privilege to take command of the 1st Company and face Asami first." Noriaki definitely meant die first, but Satoshi didn't correct him for obvious reasons.

"Is everyone ready then?" Noriaki inquired while giving them an encouraging smile. Thus the nine Root ANBU drew and the winner was quickly determined.

"Oh, come on", an unlucky Nara complaint.

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It finally dawned on Fumihiko what Asami meant when she said that even the shittiest plan was guaranteed work as long as you had a good army whereas even the best, the most brilliant strategy ever conceived in military history was doomed to fail in the hands of a bunch of incompetent fools. In conclusion, the point his princess tried to make was that in the end a strategy no matter how good was quite useless when you couldn't execute it because you didn't have the necessary human material at your disposal.

While rather extreme, Fumihiko had to concede that her words contained a grain of truth. Especially, now that he saw with his own eyes how true they were and why Asami referred to the majority of Konoha's military as an undisciplined mob of donkeys led by stupid donkeys and commanded by even stupider donkeys. He had always assumed that this was merely one of the typical Asamian hyperboles, which wasn't the case, however, as he had found out recently. The army was indeed in such a deplorable state. And that was most likely the reason that her highness had dumped him and graciously allowed him to deal with this entire mess, dammit.

An unhappy Fumihiko realised that this was the second girl second time he got outmanoeuvred by a girl who was way more evil than her height suggested and superior intellect, even though he should have seen it coming. The next time she would give him of her presents, he would simply say no and be done with it. No, no, no…

Situated in his improvised command post, or rather command tent, an annoyed Fumihiko was drumming his fingers while targeting his target with an angry stare that was sadly not as effective as he desired, or to be more precise not effective at all. Why couldn't Asami be here, she was way better at this kind of things and her eyes never failed to make an impression when needed.

Fumihiko briefly looked on a very useful info sheet, "Ehm… Kazuma, you probably don't know that I am normally quite a patient person." Especially, compared to Asami who would have given the Hyuga a well-earned kick in his damn ass.

"But even my patience knows limits. Therefore, I am asking again what you mean with they are gone?" Fumihiko maintained a smile while facing the white-eyed bastard.

The Hyuga smirked as if he was something better than him, which was exactly what he thought, "Isn't that obvious? They are gone."

Fumihiko still maintained his façade," Kazuma, rest assured that I know the definition of the words "they are gone". But my question was rather where they are, or how it is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and the 5th Company are currently missing? Because I think you, Kazuma, as the one in charge of them should know why they hadn't arrived yet? After all, I doubt that 5, I repeat, 5 entire Companies can magically disappear from one moment to the next and are nowhere to be found."

Fumihiko voice was slightly strained," So once again, where are our mysterious Companies, Kazuma? I am waiting."

The clicked with tongue and shrugged his shoulders," No idea. "

Fumihiko's smile faltered, "Huh, no idea?" What would a certain lovely girl do in his stead? The answer was obvious.

"Very well, then I recommend you, Kazuma, to leave this place, search for them and guide them right here if possible", Fumihiko ordered kindly and pointed towards the exit.

The Hyuga furrowed his eyebrow," Now?"

Now? His excellency had a lot of nerve, so much was sure. Fumihiko's reply was prompt," Yes, NOW, you fucking asshole, or do need a special invitation? And now move your ass!"

The Hyuga finally left the tent while Fumihiko messaged his temples. The Hyuga cost him much of his life time and this was only the beginning of his problems. He hated this job, he really hated it. Nevertheless, he continued.

" Anyway, ehm … ", he glimpsed on his sheet, "Sarutobi Naritomo, right?" The man nodded.

"Are there any issues with your battalion, or is everything fine? Missing companies and whatever else?"

The Sarutobi scratched his head innocently, a bad sign," More or less, there isn't anything all too serious."

"All too serious? So what is exactly not all too serious, Naritomo?" life was full of surprises and Fumihiko was indeed curious what would come now.

"Nothing relevant, only a "few" absent Genin, Chunin and Jonin. As a consequence, we are bit understrength at the moment, but we should be still operational."

Understrength, understrength, understrength. Seriously, why had everything to be so complicated? Fumihiko asked despite dreading the answer," And about how many are we talking, Naritomo?"

"I am not sure, but I guess around 15% on a rough estimation. The majority are simple Genin, but the percentage of missing Chunin and Jonin is still high, therefore I am currently running short of experienced team and especially squad leaders", Naritomo sounded, unsurprisingly, rather worried.

"And where are these f…, I mean, our friends? Where are they? And I would like to know why they left their posts" Fumihiko smiled uneasily and noticed how he adopted more and more of Asami's habits. Had Asami a bad influence on him? A bit perhaps.

"Where they are? Well, they didn't tell me anything specific, but as far as I know, they have gone watching the Chunin exams."

"Pardon, could you please repeat this, Naritomo. Where **are they again**?" Fumihiko was slightly angry, a tiny bit.

"Watching the Chunin exams."

"The Chunin exams?"

"Yes, the Chunin exams."

Fumihiko couldn't believe it and was earnestly considering to send the gendarme and get the fuckers here pronto. Unfortunately, however, he didn't have any MP units under his command.

"And why are our reliable shinobi there, Naritomo? Have they got premium cards, or a date perhaps? Because I hope for them that they have some good reasons, otherwise…"

"Apparently, because what we are doing here is officially only a "manoeuvre" for training purposes and their presence is therefore not really obligatory, especially whether you are Jonin or Chunin. And not to forget, this year are some really good fights and they didn't want to miss them." And that was the reason why you shouldn't camouflage your operation as a training exercise, great, really, great.

"The genius of the Hyuga clan vs the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi, the last Uchiha vs the Kazekage's son. I have even heard that a rather interesting girl is participating too. What was her name again? I think it was…"

"I get it, I get it. You can stop, Naritomo", Fumihiko intervened with a wave of his hand. After all, he didn't need a name, *cough* Asami *cough*, he already knew and he sighed in resignation. What should he do now? Should he ignore it, 15% weren't that much and could be still considered sustainable "losses".

On the other hand, however, enough was enough and it was time to remind some of Konoha's loyal shinobi of their duty even if he had to drag every single one of these idiots out the arena by force. They were going to serve and nothing would change that.

Fumihiko had a plan and he looked up," Namika, has the 3rd Battalion already been fully mobilised?"

"Ehm, we are waiting on the promised ANBU, but otherwise we are ready to go", the woman replied.

"I see." Oh, yes, he had completely forgot that their lovely ANBU hadn't still made their appearance, which was another issue that had to be solved eventually, but not now.

"Namika, you will stay here while Naritomo and me are going to make a little visit to Chunin exams and collect a few of our strugglers…"

"Captain", a Chunin entered the tent. Why had he always to be interrupted when he was about to say something important, how was that possible?

Fumihiko turned towards his fellow shinobi," Yes, what is?"

"The ANBU have sent a messenger, Captain."

"And?"

"He says that he has something to discuss with you, something important, special orders from the Hokage."

Special orders? Hokage? Fumihiko furrowed his eyebrow," Whatever, then let him come in."

"Ehm, that is not possible. It seems that the orders are highly confidential and only restricted to you, Captain. You should meet him therefore in private, alone" Fumihiko rolled his eyes, the ANBU and their precious secrecy.

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Together with his newfound ANBU friends, four in total, Fumihiko was already walking a few minutes into the forest, deeper and deeper until there was seemingly no escape anymore.

A very annoyed Jonin had finally enough, however, and addressed the leader of their little group, an orange-haired boy whose face was concealed by a white lynx mask," So what are these special orders?"

The boy stopped his walk too and gave him the typical icy ANBU stare, at least he tried to. Asami was way scarier and if you were used to her eyes, like him, then you didn't have to fear anyone below the Kage-level.

The ANBU remained silent and offered him an innocent looking scroll. He didn't see it, but Fumihiko was sure that the boy was actually smiling behind his mask," Captain Fumihiko, your orders are to arrest Asami, or rather your forces are ordered to assist us ANBU in arresting her if any "support" should be needed, which is unlikely, however. After all, if she has nothing to hide, then she has nothing to fear from us."

"Therefore, I hope that Asami won't resist her detention and surrender to us peacefully instead, otherwise we could be forced to take more drastic measures if she decides to resist and attack us ANBU without provocation."

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Fumihiko blinked a few times and pinched his cheek to be sure. Wasn't this just a dream, a fiddle imagination of his mind? Or was this indeed reality? An incredulous Fumihiko looked upwards as if he would find some kind on answer there. Logically, he didn't find anything besides the bright sun and the blue sky. Today was a wonderful day, wasn't it?

A silent Fumihiko grabbed the scroll and opened it. Nevertheless, he still couldn't believe what was written there in black and white. He didn't dream, because what the ANBU said was true, Asami should be kept in custody, the document had even the official seal of the Hokage. Nevertheless, his instincts told him that something was wrong here, very wrong. Nothing of this made any sense and he had a lot of questions.

"Furthermore, we inform you, Captain, that five companies have already been transferred to us and will be henceforth under our direct command until we return them to you."

Fumihiko eyed the ANBU suspiciously, "So, that is where my men have gone to, you have stolen them. And without my permission, I might add." Assholes, that was the reason everyone hated the ANBU. They always appeared out of nowhere with some asinine "not your business" and "my dick is bigger than yours" kind of orders from above and told you what to do without even asking.

The ANBU defended himself," Stolen? Aren't you a bit exaggerating, Captain? Like I said, they have been merely transferred to us. And don't worry, this change is only temporary, you will get them back again after we have completed our mission together with the rest of us ANBU."

Fumihiko largely ignored the man as he was more focused on a small detail while scanning through the scroll. It was clear that Asami had to be arrested for something, but for what exactly wasn't written anywhere, which made thins entire story even more fishy. Fumihiko furrowed his eyebrow as he began to distrust his counterparts more and more.

Someone was telling here not the whole truth and Fumihiko doubted that it was him," On the contrary, I don't think I am exaggerating here at all. And to be honest, I don't care if it is only temporary or whatever bullshit excuses you still have, you ANBU will give me back my five companies, immediately."

Fumihiko mustered all his courage and gave the ANBU his best stare," Moreover, I am really interested in why you are planning to arrest her? What has she precisely done to deserve such a treatment?"

The boy chose silence and viewed Fumihiko as if he didn't expect this degree of resistance, which he didn't," That is confidential and really not your business, Captain."

Confidential? "Confidential?", Fumihiko's resolve was firm, he wouldn't betray Asami only because a few rather dubious ANBU told him so," You know what, you and your ANBU friends can go fuck yourselves because I won't do anything of your bullshit here, even if it is from the Hokage himself."

Fumihiko was angry and threw the scroll away. He left the place as any further second with these idiots was a waste of his life time.

"That is unfortunate, Captain, very unfortunate. We honestly believed that you would be a bit more cooperative like Kazuma. But it seems we have underestimated your loyalty to her, **Fumihiko**."

We? Fumihiko stopped suddenly and faced the boy," What do mean with we…"

Fumihiko turned and that was moment the ANBU rammed his sword right through him, right through his unprotected stomach. He couldn't evade, he couldn't react, he couldn't do anything.

Fu leaned closer and whispered into his ears," Your services aren't needed anymore, Captain. But don't worry, we have already found an ideal replacement for you, Fumihiko."

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"Hey." "Stop." Disrespecting." "Me!" the Kage Bushin cried out in unison as Naruto initiated his assault. Asami furrowed her eyebrow, didn't the boy comprehend that he was sending his clones right into their own ruin? Granted, he might not have inherited the tactical prowess of his brilliant father, but shouldn't he nevertheless realise that getting into hand-to-hand combat with a Gentle Fist was a rather stupid idea and was just playing into Neji's hands? If you were as weak as Naruto, you should always keep your distance against a Hyuga and you were practically safe. But what did she know? After all, she was only Asami.

The Uchiha was smiling smugly and watched how Naruto got slaughtered with a tiny bit of satisfaction. Schadenfreude was the greatest joy, especially if it came from your heart like in her case. Asami didn't particularly understand why she disliked the boy for no reason aside from him being Naruto, which seemed kind of unreasonable. But something within told her that her cause was just and that she was right to do so and that it was the right thing to do, as if she was holding an ancient grudge against Naruto.

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	41. Arc VI Chapter II

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter II**

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"Become Hokage, eh? It is impossible with that talent of yours"

"Talent is decided at your birth, practically everything is decided at your birth and I can figure it out with my eyes", Neji smirked completely sure of his imminent victory while Asami had a different perspective.

Yes, yes, she had got it, the Hyuga was a little amateur philosopher with deterministic tendencies, bravo, bravo. But if Neji had the intention to impress her on intellectual, then he had to come up with a little more than that. Anyway, could they please get back to the match, less talking, more fighting. After all, the girl wasn't here for their dialoguing. Asami wanted to see blood.

"Why do you always automatically decide things like that?!" Naruto replied annoyingly loud as always. Truly, he hadn't changed since the academy days, his hair, his character, his clothes, he was still the same. Asami looked down on herself and her attire. But to be fair, she also hadn't changed much in these two years.

"You are saying then that anyone can become Hokage through hard work alone?" Neji countered.

"Only a handful of shinobi are predestined to be Hokage, that is the hard truth. Those that become Hokage were born into their role. You don't become it by merely trying, you were chosen by destiny."

"People must live within their own unchangeable flow and the only destiny that every person shares is death."

Asami could only roll her eyes, how dramatic, it almost touched her heart. Sure, sure, she largely subscribed what he was saying and his last sentence earned him a few bonus points, but nevertheless… As said before, less sophistry, more action. Finish him, finish him, you fucking idiot. Asami was massaging her temples in disappointment.

And what was he waiting for? The Hokage or what? Naruto was right there, right in front of him, and Neji just one strike away from victory in a match that should have been already over if the famed genius of the Hyuga clan was even remotely as good as rumoured, which wasn't apparently the case. In the end, he was probably just as useless as the rest.

"So what?! I am not good at giving up!" Naruto created his small personal army of clones, the next round had officially begun. Asami didn't care, however, as she had already lost any interest and grew increasingly bored with the match. While she had nothing else to do than awaiting Neji's predicted victory, an impatient and very haptic Kunoichi inspected her finger nails and resisted the temptation to play around with one of her kunai, she really wanted to fight. Luckily, it would be soon her turn, or to be more precise her match would follow soon unless another Uchiha decided to show up within the next minutes and after the puppeteer, what was his name again, Kankuro

An excited girl glanced at her first opponent, the mummified Oto-nin who hadn't realised yet that he was as good as dead. Asami smiled feeling within her a certain sense of satisfaction. And then would follow Shikamaru who had the opportunity to dance with her.

Because she was mainly focused on her future opponents and immensely important questions like which colour would suit her nails the most, burgundy, bordeaux, or rather vermillion, difficult, difficult choice, Asami mostly ignored the ongoing match until she sensed a certain characteristic Chakra that caught her attention immediately. The moment she felt this distinctive rage-filled aura, she focused her view on the arena again and the girl was pleasantly surprised by what she saw, one could almost say that it was one of the rare times that she was actually impressed.

Asami was rubbing her eyes because she didn't trust them. But it seemed to be true, Konoha's Jinchuriki wasn't completely useless anymore and had upgraded himself to largely useless in her eyes. Nevertheless, it was quite an impressive feat and she had to concede grudgingly that she had never expected something like this from Naruto, the all-time loser, the boy who could barely perform a single Jutsu throughout the academy, the boy who was a hidden illiterate in her opinion, the boy who somehow passed the graduation exam, even though he shouldn't.

Asami clicked her tongue slightly envious of Naruto. Contrary to all of her expectations, he could indeed control and use the Kyubi's Chakra. Not perfectly and surely not to a degree she would ever deem acceptable by a wide margin, Naruto wasted way too much Chakra due to his poor Chakra control and his way too careless handling of his reserves in general. But nevertheless he had accomplished more than she had ever believed was possible and the tides of battles had finally turned in his favour. Chapeau, Naruto, chapeau. Perhaps she should keep an eye on him as one never knew how much the boy would still grow, only time would tell.

The boiling red Chakra was forming some kind of protective cloak around Naruto, was it something like her Susanoo? No, this was different, very different. The cloak was seemingly alive and she could feel this incomprehensible hatred in the air from where she stood, this hatred for everything human., the anger, the desperation, the disappointment, the sadness, the loneliness. Considering that the Nine-Tails was technically only an accumulation of large quantities of Chakra, the Biju was remarkably emotional, wasn't he? What had he seen to feel this much hate?

Asami didn't require her Sharingan to confirm that this wasn't his normal Chakra, this was definitely the Kyubi that granted Naruto an insignificant part of his power, amazing.

The completed cloak mimicked the appearance of a fox, which wasn't too surprising in her eyes, and announced the final phase of the match. Naruto attacked with new vigour and particularly with an unprecedented speed, an interesting feature that was noted by her. The question was now how long Neji would last? One minute, two minutes, three minutes?

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Drunken by his victory, Naruto danced and jumped around like an absolute fool down in the arena, it was almost comical and made Asami laugh. The boy left the field in understandably a good mood and accompanied by the thunderous applause of the masses, even she was clapping moderately to commemorate this "incredible" match for Genin standards. After all, he had emerged victorious and beaten Neji, albeit it was less decisive than she had initially hoped for and was a near run thing even though he practically cheated by resorting to a full load of Kyubicin. Asami doubted strongly that the idiot would have won without his last hidden ace and the luckiest lucky punch she had ever seen. Naruto didn't land a single, a **single** hit during the entire match except for the one punch at the end that had miraculously knocked out Neji. One good blow and he went down. Tsk tsk tsk, seriously, didn't the genius of the Hyuga clan have a tiny bit of staying power and couldn't he take a single hit? No, he didn't and he couldn't, what a pussy. If he had had a modicum of Lee's perseverance, then he would have easily beaten Naruto any day of the year. Oh come on, she had literally stabbed Lee through his legs with an electrocuting kunai and he was still standing, while Neji got one punch and was now lying on the ground like an idiot, aargh.

After the Kunoichi had finished her little tirade against incompetent Hyuga, Asami was slowly breathing in and was breathing out," Relax, relax, Asami. There is no reason to be upset and you didn't want to see Naruto being beaten up. No. no, you didn't. You are calm." Nevertheless, won was still won and she wasn't that petty yet to deny Naruto his success.

Shikamaru clapped Naruto on his shoulder," Not bad, not bad, and I thought you were the same lame ass-type like me, Naruto."

The boy stretched his arms above his head and grinned mischievously right next to her," Hehehe." He visibly enjoying this moment of attention, of company, of recognition, of self-esteem, of comapny as if it was everything he had ever wanted and more. As far as she knew, didn't Naruto grew up as an orphan? Yes, he did. Was this a sign of overcompensation? Perhaps. Naruto only needed a bit of love like everyone and someone could have used this kind of psychological weak point to their advantage, someone like her.

Asami beamed happily and glanced sideward," Although you were a little lucky, congratulations on your victory, Naruto, you can be proud. You were way better than I have anticipated, respectable."

A grinning Naruto scratched his head," Thank you, … ehm, … ehm, … ehm, who are you again?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and inspected her figure attentively as if she was something alien that didn't belong here," Do we know each other?"

Asami wasn't annoyed and a small vein didn't appear on her forehead, she was only amused by him," You might have forgotten me, but I haven't forgotten you, Naruto." He followed her explanation and nodded along, albeit it was doubtable if he was even listening.

"However, it hurts my heart that you apparently don't recognize me. All in all, we were four years at the same academy, not to say together in in the same class. And I can still remember vividly how you were always asking me if you could copy my homework and how I always told you kindly that you should make them on your own, otherwise you would never learn anything before I passed them to you."

Naruto nodded with his arms crossed," Hmm, I see. I don't know, but the way you are speaking and look somehow reminds me of someone."

Was he an idiot, or was he simply ignoring her? The girl wasn't 100% sure because both options were possible. Idiot or ignoring, idiot or ignoring, or both together. Asami furrowed her eyebrow and tilted her annoyed head," Are you listening, Naruto?" As expected, she didn't get any reply.

Instead, he pointed at her and exclaimed in a way that suggested he had made a great scientific breakthrough, "Yes, I know you. You are the ice princess who beat Bushy Eyebrows."

"Eh?" Asami blinked confused. It was obvious that he meant her with ice princess. But who the hell was Bushy Brows?

Ultimately, the girl gave up her attempt to solve this enigma, "Yes, I am that ice princess and names don't seem to be your particular forte, Naruto, do they?"

"Ehm, what do you mean?" the boy reacted confused. So, he really didn't notice that he had tendency to give people one of his silly nicknames and how annoying they were. He had been usually calling her princess gloom and it got on her nerves, even though it was technically true. But Asami didn't want to hear the truth because the truth hurt.

The Kunoichi sighed in resignation, she surrendered, "Never mind, forget it, Naruto."

The girl grabbed her nearby scabbard and left the remaining Genin as the opportunity was ideal, it was time to fight now, her time to shine a bit.

"Hey, where are you going?" Naruto asked surprised by her action.

"Where I am going? I can assure you nowhere special", the girl smirked.

" Thank to the fact that our puppeteer has forfeited for whatever reasons", she gave Kankuro an appreciative nod," and that I have to substitute our missing Uchiha here, my match is about to start soon, or to be precise now."

Asami marched away, not before she could give a certain Genin a few last words," And by the way, my name is Asami, Naruto, Asami, a name you should better remember."

"Hmpf, and why that?" the boy crossed his arms and didn't look convinced.

"Oh, that is rather easy. There are a few good reasons, but mainly because I will give you today a little parting gift and teach you how a real fight between shinobi looks like, you can say I teach you a little lesson for the future, and an important one too. After all, I believe that an important facet of the ninja life hasn't been shown adequately yet, not to say is underrepresented. Therefore, look and learn."

"And that would be?" Shikamaru furrowed his eyebrow and wondered why the girl was acting as if she was their sensei? He admittedly knew about Asami's hubristic vein since …, basically, since the first time he saw her, but he had also realised long ago that there was substantially more to Asami than the eye met. Thus, her "look and learn" wasn't a simple phrase, she meant it that way.

Asami grinned mischievously, "Don't worry, you will see, Shikak, … maru."

"Come, we don't wish to make our audience wait", Asami smiled deviously at her opponent, which had the intended effect.

"Otherwise, they might become impatient, and we don't want that, right?" the girl pronounced her words slowly and Dosu sensed the subtle touch of danger that was embedded in them.

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"Shikaku, how do you think will be the next match?" Inoichi grew increasingly impatient and tipped with his fingers on his vest.

The Jonin commander took, however, his time as a result of his hangover while massaging his temples," No idea. However, it is unlikely that it will top the previous one."

"What do you think, Yoshino?" he passed the question to his wife and certainly not because he didn't want to get bothered further. Damn, hangover.

"More or less, but I am happy that we will see our son next then. I am wondering who he will be up against? Hopefully, not someone strong, otherwise he won't stand a chance when it is a miracle that he got this far in the exams."

"Yes, hopefully. I didn't even know that was participating in the tournament until, well, until yesterday and then I thought initially that it was some kind of bad joke. Who would have thought that he would get to this point instead of giving up the first best opportunity", Shikaku expressed his doubts.

A curious Inoichi intervened," Really?"

"Yes, don't you remember? You were right there with me in the bar, Inoichi", the gave him a questioning stare.

The Yamanaka raised his arms in defence," Ah, yes, I forgot."

"Look, it seems the next round is about to start, they have already entered the arena", Yoshino informed both and the Nara looked therefore down inspecting the two opponents.

On the one side was Oto-nin, a normal Genin, nothing special in summary. And on the side was a black-haired Kunoichi that appeared somehow familiar…

"Oh holy shit, what the fuck is she doing here?" Shikaku blinked and cried out in panic. Asami was there, right in front of his eyes, but how? Why? Nobody had told him anything about that. Had the Hokage gone senile or what to put her into the tournament? Shouldn't it be clear that she would slaughter anyone regardless of them being the last Uchiha, the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi or whatever else? Luckily, Shikamaru wasn't the one to fight her as he was placed into the following bracket…, the following bracket…, the following bracket.

.

.

.

Shikamaru was fucked. And how his son was fucked, it almost made Shikaku laugh. Now he could only trust in his intelligence and every Nara's excellent survival instincts, which he had fortunately en masse. He would be safe, no need to worry.

Yoshino pulled his arm and the Nara finally reacted," What is she doing here? So, you actually know this girl down there, don't you?"

"Ehm…, no, eh, no, yes. Yes, I do", he conceded unwillingly.

"And how?" Yoshino proceeded with her inquisition.

"That is a rather complicated story", Shikaku scratched his head innocently. Apparently, he had talked a bit too much, what a drag.

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The proctor hadn't initiated the match yet as he was still waiting until both of them were ready. Asami eyed her opponent standing in front of her, a mere metre away from her, and used this moment of uncomfortable silence. The girl smirked," If I remember correctly, your name was Dosu, right?"

The Genin narrowed his eye suspiciously.

Asami sighed disappointed by his lack of cooperation, "I will interpret this as a yes."

The girl placed her hand on her heart," Deep down here, I am a rather benevolent person. Therefore, I will offer you one last chance, one final chance to save your skin. Surrender and you might live a little bit longer, you have the choice." She could gift him a few more hours as he was certain to die soon anyway.

As expected, the Genin preferred silence and declined her disingenuous proposal that had expired by now.

"So be it. I hope you don't regret your decision", the Kunoichi smirked.

"*cough*, are you ready then, *cough*?" the proctor asked and both nodded unanimously.

" *cough*, then the next round, *cough*, starts now", Gekko declared barely audible. Asami rolled her eyes. Seriously, he should go to see some kind of doctor.

Her opponent masterly used her disinterest and absence of opposition, and immediately distanced himself from her. He retreated backwards in the belief this could save him, which was a wrong assumption, however, because he wasn't safe.

For a teleporter like her, the concepts of distance and speed were irrelevant, what mattered was the line of sight and he would soon realise that. As long as her eyes could see him, the Genin was within her striking independently of where he stood and where he was hiding, which wasn't an easy task if you were fighting against a Sharingan on the other side, no to say impossible.

Asami closed her eyes and drew her sword presenting it in front of her face," What I want to show you, Naruto, is an undeniable truth within the world of shinobi, that protracted engagements like between you and Neji are a rare commodity on the battlefield."

The girl spoke with utmost confidence as she induced her Chakra into the blade. Surrounded by a mass of chirping electronic currents, the steel slowly began to glow white, "Most confrontations between professional ninja don't last longer than a few seconds, or a few minutes at most. No, they are generally decided very quickly and often by a huge disparity of skill and ability between both sides that can't be compensated."

"In summary, the outcome of most confrontations is relatively one-sided and not as uncertain as you might believe, Naruto, even though your victory against Neji seems to suggest otherwise. The will to fight and not give up alone won't overcome a vastly superior enemy and won't guarantee victory. Power without will is admittedly worthless, but will without power is even more dangerous."

"Therefore, you should never forget a triste fact, Naruto, that success is not the norm for a shinobi, but an exception that visits only few and not the forgotten many. That what awaits many shinobi at the end of their path, at the end of their Nindo, are not the desired accolades of victory, neither the fulfilment of dreams, nor their ultimate triumph, but…", the smiling girl lowered her sword and reopened her crimson eyes for a brief moment focusing her vision on a certain point behind her opponent. It was over.

"death", holding the grip tightly with her two hands, Asami struck the tip of her blade through Dosu's left shoulder blade. Her lightning shredded everything and left a gaping hole of burned flesh and disintegrating bone in his chest.

Pulling out her blade, the lifeless corpse toppled forwards and landed onto the dusty ground. An innocent Asami looked up to the stances and at a certain Nara," If am not mistaken, aren't you the next one, Shikamaru?"

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	42. Arc VI Chapter III

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter III**

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"Hokage-dono, a spectacular match, don't you think?" an excited Kazekage asked his fellow Kage for his opinion.

Hiruzen took a breath on his pipe. Granted, he had predicted that something like this would happen sooner or later, nevertheless it was unexpected. Sure, ANBU was ANBU, and Asami was the type of Kunoichi that resorted rather quickly to the bloodier kind of methods when the situation seemed in her opinion opportune, but still.

The old man smiled," Spectacular? Unfortunately, I can't follow you, Kazekage-dono. It seems that I have missed something, but I fail to see what should be so spectacular about this match?"

"Hokage-dono, you may have grown old, but don't you see what treasure is lying right under your nose? Many villages would kill for having such a valuable Kunoichi like her among their ranks", the Kazekage was amused by his ignorance and lack of foresight.

"I admit that her performance in this match was certainly impressive, but isn't that way too much praise for a simple Genin you see today for the first time, Kazekage-dono. I don't think that you can evaluate her abilities correctly based on a single round. Therefore, you shouldn't make your judgement too rashly ", the Hokage lowered his hat and waited for a reaction.

His instincts told Hiruzen that something was wrong here. He knew Rasa since a long time, but his behaviour today was strange. Now Asami, and Sasuke a few minutes ago. The Rasa he knew had never taken so much interest in anyone. Especially, not in two Genin he should have never met before. This was ... suspicious. Why was he going after them? What did he want?

The Kazekage laughed," No, not all, Hokage-dono. In my opinion, the girl deserves even more of my praise. This strength, this power, this Chakra, this lethality, this unmatched potential.

"Asami is such a beautiful gem, perfect, almost perfect like everything else about her. Konoha is fortunate to have her, Hiruzen, and it is really a shame that she can't be mine", Orochimaru stared at the girl and regretted her loss. Asami had everything he wanted and more, but she didn't have the Sharingan, the object he longed for all these years and could never attain, how unfortunate. In the end, he found Asami wanting, otherwise the girl would have been the ideal choice for his new body.

Her and a pair of Sharingan would have such a wonderful combination, but you couldn't have everything in life. And luckily, he still had a more than suitable substitution at his disposal. Sasuke possessed what he searched for, he had only to be refined with a bit of training. In his current state, his body was definitely worthless, or rather underdeveloped, but he had time to let him mature.

And the Uchiha was in general the less risky option. Sasuke was stabler, way easier to manipulate, and less likely to kill him if he should sense any weakness. The girl tried it once and failed. Nevertheless, the Sannin wasn't that eager to experience such an adventure again, even though he rarely had so much fun like back then.

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Shikamru gulped as he had a strong incentive to reconsider his participation, namely a certain girl standing down there and waiting for him," Well, I think I should forfeit… Aargh."

"Alright! Shikamaru, go for it!" a motivated Naruto pushed his friend over the railing and as consequence of his action Shikamaru crashed involuntarily rather than voluntarily down onto the hard ground.

Asami tilted her confused head. What was that? Seriously, what was that? There was absolute no moment of hesitation or reflection. Unconcerned about his friend's health and the free fall that expected him, the boy shoved Shikamaru down here. The fact that she had practically murdered a defenceless Genin right in front of his eyes didn't discourage Naruto, the epitome of infinite positivity, in the slightest and he practically sent his friend into the jaws of death without a second thought and any sign of remorse, which was quite frankly incomprehensible to the girl.

What was Naruto thinking? Didn't he see that this was a lost cause and that Shikamaru was supposed to fight her now? Or was it her who didn't understand here? She would never have done something like this, even though Asami always thought that she was the heartless person here. Apparently, that was not the case, kindness was cruel in its own way.

"Damn Naruto", Shikamaru murmured angrily while lying with his back on the surprisingly comfortable ground. Didn't the idiot realise that he didn't want to fight, tsk tsk tsk.

"Good luck, Shikamaru! And don't give up! You can beat her, I am sure!" a motivated Naruto smiled down on him.

He could only roll his eyes. He needed a bit more than good luck in this fight. And if Naruto was that sure, then he could do him a favour and change places with him, what a drag.

"Shouldn't you stand up, Shikamaru? I have no problem with you sleeping down there in your free time, but, well, you aren't the only one here and I am waiting", Asami informed the absent-minded Genin.

Shikamaru turned his head and focused his slightly irritated on the nearby Kunoichi. Oh yes, she was still there and it was a girl again. Again he had to fight to a girl, and top of that it was Asami, what a drag. At least, she hadn't attacked yet, which was a good sign.

" You are right, I should stand up", Shikamaru finally reacted and dusted off his clothes as if he had all the time the world.

His action earned him a visible eye roll from Asami. A little showman, wasn't he? Well, she wasn't any better, though.

Now, what was her strategy this time? Killing was a rather suboptimal option for obvious reasons. And why should she even kill him? Shikamaru wasn't an enemy and he didn't merit elimination like this Dosu guy. Not to mention, Asami never killed fellow Konoha shinobi, normally. Which meant, she had to beat him up a bit until he gave up. Asami nodded mentally. Yes, that sounded like an adequate plan, not a brilliant one, but a good one.

The question was, however, how she should she beat him up then? Asami was rubbing her chin. To begin with, she should avoid going overboard. After all, he was Shikaku's son and she had no intention to injure him beyond what she deemed really necessary. Well, it seemed that she would go easy on him today, a few punches and kicks, but nothing extraordinary. Only good old conventional Taijutsu …

"You know, Asami, I don't really want to fight and I don't particularly care whether I become a Chunin or not… ", Shikamaru interrupted her thoughts. Didn't he see that she was thinking, how impolite.

Talking big again, huh? Asami furrowed her sceptical eyebrow," Oh, good for you that you are not interested in something trivial like this Chunin thingy, Shikamaru, congratulations."

The Kunoichi clapped her sarcastic hands," But what does that have exactly to do with me?"

" The point is that I don't really care about becoming a Chunin, way too annoying, way too much responsibility. Nevertheless, I am not going to lose to a girl", Shikamaru smirked completely unconcerned by her presence and seemingly relaxed.

Asami blinked with her eyelids and it took her a while to process. He didn't, right? He didn't really say that? It couldn't be. His words didn't make any sense. They had practically no purpose aside from provoking her, which he accomplished brilliantly. However, didn't the boy realise that he was trying his luck a lot today, not to mention her limited goodwill. Yes, Shikamaru could do this kind of things, it was his decision. But he was walking on a very thin ice and he shouldn't expect that it would automatically end well for him. The boy would get his payback, that was sure.

The offended Uchiha narrowed her eyes," What did you say again?" The girl gave him a last chance to salvage the situation by taking back his words. Would he take the opportunity or not?

Putting his hands into his pockets, Shikamaru replied in a confident voice that left no doubt that his victory was imminent," As I said, I am not going to lose to you. After all, you can't have a guy lose against a girl. Therefore, I guess, I will fight then." Shikamaru smirked while the Uchiha felt a sudden urge to give Shikamaru a good beating, a beating that he wouldn't and shouldn't forget this quickly.

The boy knew exactly what he was doing. Hidden by her black sleeves, Asami clenched her angry fists," Aren't you supposed to be a smart boy, Shikamaru? So why have you done this, my friend? Was this really necessary?"

The girl narrowed her annoyed eyes and expected his answer. Shikamru smirked and took his time," I don't know what you mean. Could you please help me, Asami-chan?"

While one of her hands was slowly wandering towards her pouch and a pair of friendly shuriken, Asami sighed in an almost regretting tone," Listen, I will give you now a little tip for your future career, my friend."

"Do you know why it is usually considered a rather stupid idea to needlessly provoke an opponent way stronger than you in the vast world of shinobi, Shikamaru?" the girl pulled out the two shuriken and cowered them with her Raiton Chakra. An electrified Asami didn't care anymore if Shikamaru got now two nice scars on his face like his father.

"Because doing that is indeed a fucking stupid idea", the Kunoichi smiled softly as the shuriken left her hand and she conveniently forgot the act that the round hadn't started yet, but these were just some annoying formalities. After all, Shikamaru was a shinobi. And which professional shinobi should be able to deal with a little surprise attack from time to time?

Taken by surprise, he quickly realised his predicament and that Asami had aimed for his head, which wasn't good. As a consequence, Shikamaru bent backwards and evaded the incoming shuriken that embedded themselves deeply into the wall behind him by cutting through the stone like butter. Once again he was saved by his athleticism, otherwise this could have been a very painful and unpleasant experience. Her beloved shuriken were evidently pretty sharp, and not forgetting they were damn fast. In summary, he should better avoid being hit by them, which was, however, way easier said than done.

Having survived the first attack, a motivated Shikamaru jumped up," Nice try, but the next time you should... Oh shit!"

Unfortunate as he was, he jumped right into her next salvo and this time he didn't get away without paying his price. He rolled sidewards and three of her shuriken missed their mark, but the fourth shuriken grazed his shoulder slitting open his vest and the flesh below with its Chakra.

Shikamaru ground his teeth and inspected the cauterized cut running along his arm. The cut wasn't deep as it was only a light scratch and nothing more, he got lucky this time. Her shuriken could apparently cause some very nasty wounds as he had directly learned by now. Perhaps he really shouldn't have baited her before. Considering the mixed results, it was probably not the best move ever made by him. Luring her into his range didn't work and Asami didn't attack him head on as planned. Instead, he only pissed her off, suboptimal, and got a few shuriken as a nice present, not good.

He already saw, this was going to be a complicated match and not an easy one. And why did he always end up fighting women? Annoying, wasn't it?

Shikamaru focused his full attention on Asami. What was the girl going to do next? Shuriken, kunai, her sword or a jutsu? A, B, C or D?

" Don't worry, I am not finished yet", her lips formed a smile as the girl presented him in her hands proudly six further shuriken," Ta-da."

"After all, I still have quite a few shuriken to spare, Shikamaru, and I can assure you that I won't run out of them that quickly. So, should we continue with our target practice?"

So, it was A, what a drag. Damn Asami and damn shuriken, both started to get really on his nerves the longer the match lasted. Shikamaru glimpsed towards the nearby trees. They weren't that far away. He had to get out of here, away from her, and hiding was likely the best option available… Shikamaru throw himself onto the ground head and avoided a very friendly shuriken flying straight past his head in a beautifully curved parabola.

Spinning another shuriken leisurely around her index fingers and having a surprising amount of fun at what she was doing, an amused Asami added, "The trees? I don't particularly oppose your choice, but is that a good idea, Shikamaru? I don't know. From what I have heard, they aren't really the safest place at the moment."

How did she know? He was hiding his annoyance and guided his hand towards his pouch as inconspicuously as possible, right towards his smoke bombs.

The Kunoichi set her omniscient black eyes on him and chuckled, "How? You are way easier to read than you think, Shikamaru. Let us say, experience and a bit of situational awareness, and not forgetting your eyes betrayed you beforehand. You should be more careful with these little details, because your body language tells a lot about you and your intentions, your unsteady breath, your tensed up muscles, your erratic eye movements, your twitching fingers, the sneaky hand trying to hide behind your back."

Asami was tipping her chin while musing to herself, "Are you perhaps slightly nervous, Shikamaru? Or do you want to surprise me with something from your pouch?"

Shikamaru clicked his tongue Asami didn't disappoint him, she was still as annoying as back then at the academy, if not worse, way worse." Who knows", Shikamru was cornered and he threw his smoke bomb to cover his tactical retreat.

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"Kakashi-sensei, shouldn't I finally getdown there instead of wasting my time here?" sitting on the arena's rooftop together with his sensei, an Uchiha complaint.

Kakashi countered with his typical blank stare," If you want you can keep Naruto company, it is your decision? But I will wait here until later, until the right moment has come."

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrow," The right moment?"

Kakashi laughed softly beneath his mask," Yes, the right moment. As a good friend of mine who was notoriously late, a good ninja should always come late, or rather in the last moment possible.

"Is that the reason you have been always late to our training?" the curious Uchiha supplemented.

 **.**

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"No", a monosyllabic Kakashi took his time," No, that has a different reason. Who knows, perhaps I will tell you all someday about him?"

"Him? And who is that mysterious person?" the Uchiha asked.

"You will see when the time comes. But I can give you already a little tip, he was an Uchiha like you", Kakashi turned his head and smiled genuinely.

Sasuke, however, didn't care about these kind of sentimentalities and changed the topic," Whatever. And when will me make our entrance then?"

"Soon", Kakashi followed the ongoing match attentively," But don't be so impatient, Sasuke, we only got here recently. And in my opinion, you should be grateful for every additional time you get to regenerate your Chakra after our training, especially for such a valuable pause like now. Because you will need it."

The Uchiha clicked his annoyed tongue," And why? I don't need any pause. I can fight anyone in my current condition."

"Are you sure, Sasuke?" Kakashi pointed out," This Gara isn't exactly an easy opponent and it will take all of your strength to take him down."

Sasuke smirked," Don't worry, I will beat him no matter what, my victory is certain."

Kakashi averted his eyes from his overly confident student, which wasn't that surprising for an Uchiha. Have you ever met not a cocky Uchiha? No, he didn't. Well, he did, Obito and Itachi to some degree. But Obito was Obito, and Itachi was Itachi. They were different, they were exceptions and not the norm. Otherwise non-cocky Uchiha had been a rarity, not to say an outright contradiction in terms.

" That might be true, but what about her, Sasuke?"

Kakashi observed the slightly unbalanced fight down in the arena. Pitting a fresh Genin against an experienced ANBU wasn't really a fair fight, but rather a complete farce. But who was he to judge? Weren't his Chunin exams totally one-sided too and didn't he also practically stomp every single opponent? How old was he again back then? 5? 6? 7?

"Her?" the Uchiha followed his sensei and set his eyes on a Kunoichi who visibly enjoyed sending her enemy running by casually playing around with her collection of shuriken. Asami was good, but she certainly wasn't an Itachi. No, she wasn't.

"Hmpf, I don't care who or what she is because I have only one true enemy, everyone else is irrelevant. If it should be necessary, I will defeat her. I will defeat her like everyone else who stands in my way."

"Really? Because I don't think so, Sasuke", Kakashi added calmly.

"What do you mean?" the Uchiha narrowed his eyes threateningly.

"You are still young. Nevertheless, you should never forget that your brother isn't the only powerful ninja by far. He was an incredible shinobi without question, but his strength wasn't unique. There are many like him in the world of shinobi, people you can't hope to defeat in your current state, Sasuke. And Asami is one of them."

"Either you or Naruto will fight her in the final round unless anything unexpected happens. I can guarantee you, however, that neither of you will stand the slightest chance against her. You can't beat her, yet. In the future perhaps, but surely not now." And if everything Tenzo had told him was true, then it was doubtable if even he could win.

"Hmpf, does that mean that I should give up or what?" the Uchiha glared at him, which didn't affect him significantly, however. Kakashi sighed. Sasuke wasn't Itachi and he had still much to learn.

Kakashi laughed beneath his mask, "No, no, no, not at all. You are free to fight Asami, even though it is practically hopeless."

"Oh, thank you for your very encouraging words, Kakashi-sensei", Sasuke clicked his annoyed tongue.

Kakashi shook his head. The boy still didn't get it. Instead of being controlled by his emotions, he should really think about what he was doing, otherwise this kind of behaviour would cost him his head some day. Sasuke was strong, but he wasn't invincible.

" I think you misunderstand, Sasuke. It is not a matter of encouragement, but rather of being realistic and rational in this case. Because keep in mind, a good shinobi not only knows when to fight, but also when he shouldn't fight, right?" the Uchiha didn't react, however, and crossed his arms indignantly.

Kakashi sighed," Anyway, consider my words more like a well-intended assessment from my side. Because I still don't understand what the Hokage was thinking, but I am sure that you and Naruto deserve to know what is going on, partially."

"After all, I would never send my precious students into a fight they can't win without knowing who you are up against beforehand, wouldn't that be a bit cruel?"Kakashi smiled cryptically, "Especially if Asami is regarded as the strongest ANBU the village had ever seen, only comparable to your brother." As expected, Sasuke remained silent.

 **.**

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" Is that true?" he clenched his fist in anger and you could feel all the hatred, the thirst for vengeance in his voice. Sasuke would give everything for this one goal and Kakashi didn't like that. And sadly, it was beyond him how he could keep him away from this dangerous path, away from Orochimaru.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. I have never seen her in action aside from her match against Lee. But from what I can tell, our little ANBU here is definitely strong, extremely strong, if not stronger than Itachi. Asami might be indeed able to defeat him", the last part caught Sasuke's attention as planned, even though he had to be a bit creative with the truth, not say exaggerate slightly, which the Uchiha didn't have to know, however.

Could she really beat him? He didn't believe it. But if… But what if Kakashi was telling the truth … A doubting Sasuke turned his eyes back to the girl," Really?"

Kakashi replied calmly trying to sound as convincing as possible," As a good ex ANBU colleague has summarized correctly, less skilled, less talented, no Sharingan, but way more destructive. And can't you remember?"

Sasuke wasn't fully convinced yet," Remember what?"

"Back then at the preliminary exams, right after I have sealed your curse mark. If I am not completely mistaken, you have seen, sensed it too, haven't you? This Chakra, this aura, this power", Kakashi pointed out and that made the Uchiha think.

After a few seconds, Sasuke eyed his sensei critically, "And why are you telling me everything that? What do you hope to achieve, Kakashi-sensei?"

Now it was time for the last nail in the coffin. Kakashi laughed, "Like I said before, I think you deserve to know who you are fighting against. And moreover I am only want to show you that Konoha offers more than you can imagine, Sasuke. If you want, you can find here too what you are searching for."

"And that would be?" the Uchiha scoffed pretending to be uninterested in his answer.

"Power. Isn't that what you desire, Sasuke? Power to achieve your goal" Kakashi struck a nerve and waited for his answer, an answer that eventually came.

The Uchiha sighed, "I will think about it, Kakashi-sensei, I will think about it."

"Good."

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Concealed by cloud of smoke, Shikamaru ran as fast as he could, or rather he tried. The moment he moved, a polished kunai flew right past him and blocked his path. The kunai itself wasn't much of problem as the weapon missed him miserably, but the explosive tag attached to the grip definitely was.

Having little interest in being blown apart, Shikamaru turned to the other side before the tag expolded, which wasn't the best decision he had ever made as he would soon find out. The Genin left the protective smoke screen and was immediately punished with a burning sensation cutting through one of his legs.

Whatever it was, the stinging pain cut deep, deeper than anything he had felt before. Unable to move further, he toppled over and crashed onto the dusty ground. Stimulated by the adrenaline rushing through his body, Shikamru ground his teeth and endured the pain before he finally noticed a shuriken not too far away from him. A shuriken that was still coated by a few small electric sparkles and was innocently stuck into the earth as if it didn't seemingly try to amputate him just a few seconds ago, fucking shuriken. What interested him more, however, was one specific question, how the fuck did Asami get him. Her two attacks were perfectly timed and she obviously knew his position exactly, even though Asami could have impossibly seen him in the smoke. Therefore, how did she locate him?

The girl inspected one of her remaining shuriken as if it harboured some kind of undiscovered secret, "You see, Shikamaru, as a good ninja should be careful where you go. The world of shinobi is a really dangerous place and you can die easily from all sort of things, even from such innocuous objects like these tiny little metal stars, curious."

"Especially, if there is a certain girl with a few lonely shuriken in your vicinity", Asami smiled in a strange mixture of innocence and being happy to see him suffer, a bit. Not too much, not too little, just the right amount of suffering if such a thing existed.

And it wasn't anything that couldn't be healed anyway. A passable Iryo-nin, a few bandages, an antiseptic, a good opiate, and the boy was ready to go again in a matter of days, hours, minutes? Well, she wasn't the doctor here, that wasn't her job.

Asami made her first step in this match as she decided to approach a wounded Shikamaru until her small figure right in front of him, until he was confronted by her unsettling black eyes looking down on him.

"Anyway, Shikamaru, do you remember what you have said at the beginning? "asked the Kunoichi in a voice that lacked any sign of her previous hostility, that could almost be considered friendly. Asami was apparently genuinely curious.

"What?" Aargh, what was she talking about?

The girl put her shuriken back to the place where they belonged to and sighed," Didn't you say you wouldn't lose to a girl? Nevertheless, you are now here, lying on the ground beneath me."

"Thus, I am asking you, Shikamaru", Asami was leaning over him and blocked the sun with her black hair," Do you still think you can win this? Or have you finally recognized that you have vastly overestimated yourself and your abilities, that victory was in fact impossible from the very beginning?"

Standing there, the Uchiha was waiting, and waiting, and waiting. The girl, however, didn't get any response from the uncooperative Genin besides observing Shikamaru how his suffering hadn't ended yet. As a consequence, she a bit of a bad conscience. Not that much, but nevertheless.

A smiling Asami kneeled down to him and extended one of her pale hands," Do you need any help, Shikamaru?"

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	43. Arc VI Chapter IV

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter IV**

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"Do you need any help, Shikamaru?" Asami offered him her hand despite a certain part of her mind telling her to kick the asshole one last time straight into his guts, and somewhere further below where it hurt.

Asami observed her defeated opponent and was slightly undecided. What was to be done?

Normally, this was the point where she would stab something sharp through her defenceless enemy, which would have been, however, a bit problematic in this case, not to say extremely counterproductive and disproportional. She obviously couldn't kill Shikamaru for a variety reasons on her imaginary contra list that was longer than the entirety of her ninja scrolls combined. No, no, killing him wasn't advisable.

Therefore, she had to solve this situation in a different way, a more peaceful way, the diplomatic way. Otherwise, she could still resort to more violent measures, albeit she hoped that she didn't have to use them as long as Shikamaru acted reasonably. And not forgetting, a good deed once in a while didn't hurt.

 **.**

Asami beamed happily as she was waiting for him to finally accept her de facto offer to surrender.

"Take my hand, Shikamaru, and don't make things unnecessarily complicated for us both. We don't have to fight anymore. You don't have to fight anymore."

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Disappointingly, the boy didn't react as hoped, "Hehehehe. Hehehehe. Hehehehe."

A confused Asami furrowed her eyebrow. Shikamaru was laughing and the girl didn't understand why. He had lost, he was defeated, he was beaten, he was finished. So, why was he laughing? It didn't make any sense in her eyes unless… Unless… Unless… No, it still didn't make any sense. What was the boy thinking? Was this perhaps some kind of shock caused by the blood loss, a trauma? Unlikely, he shouldn't have lost that much. So what was the reason? Because she couldn't see it.

Asami set her concerned eyes on the boy in front of her before he could do anything stupid," Tell me, Shikamaru, why are you laughing?"

Contrary to her expectations, however, Shikamaru smirked confidently," Why I am laughing? The reason is simple, I don't need your help, Asami."

Asami chuckled softly amused by his interesting perspective. Nevertheless, the Uchiha was curious by now," Oh, you don't need it?"

"Well, you are right. You don't really need my help. After all, you are free to decide whatever you want and I won't force you", the girl was unable to contain her laughter. The entire situation was so wonderfully absurd, she loved it.

" I don't understand, though, why you are thinking so, Shikamaru? Do you still intend to fight on? Don't you recognize that your present situation is …", Asami was tipping her chin," quite precarious."

Didn't he realise how much depended currently on her goodwill? Regardless of what he did, Shikamaru was so chanceless it was comical, not to say almost tragic.

"Because it is over", the boy grinned. An angered Uchiha didn't share his new-found enthusiasm, however, because even her divine patience was finite.

"Yes, it is over, for y…", Asami had enough and stood up again, but she couldn't. She couldn't move, her entire body was like frozen. Fortunately, it didn't take long to identify the main culprit who just in front of her. The girl narrowed her eyes dangerously," Yooouuuuuu!"

Covering his wound, he rose from the ground until he was finally able to barely stand again while Asami followed his example and did the exact same. Shikamaru confronted the immobilised girl and stared right into her dark rage-filled eyes," Like said before, it is over, Asami." He had got her.

Asami was pissed off, extremely pissed off, and not just a bit. The Uchiha was grinding her teeth," Shikamaru, what have you done, you fool? Nothing is over, this is just the beginning. Because I will destroy you."

He smirked," You can try if… *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*"

Shikamaru collapsed and was forced to kneel. He didn't get any air, he couldn't breathe anymore. He felt how his own Chakra reserves were falling rapidly in order to maintain his Jutsu. They were falling at an alarming rate he had never experienced before and his Chakra system simply couldn't cope with the ever increasing demand. Shikamaru was breathing heavily and slowly everything around him turned black. It was her, it was Asami, there was no doubt. She was breaking him with his own Jutsu in a game of attrition he could impossibly win.

His entire body was just sucked dry as her massive amounts of Chakra pressed against his Jutsu trying to shatter his shadow binding with brute force alone, and it worked.

"The Shadow Imitation Jutsu, a lovely technique. But you should never forget that these sort Jutsu are always a double-edged sword. Every kind of sealing, binding, summon, not to say all Jutsu in existence work in a certain sense both ways, Shikamaru", Asami kicked him brutally in his open stomach sending him rolling over the ground, which was the first time in her life that she regretted wearing these puny sandals.

The girl approached her poor victim once again and stepped on his chest pushing his body down into the ground with the heel of her sandals," Do you know, Shikamaru, why in fact I don't like these kind of tournaments?"

Channelling her Chakra through her foot, the revanchist girl put more and more force on his sternum without actively trying to break his ribs, which was kind of undesirable. After all, she didn't want to risk any ruptures, everything else was manageable. The Uchiha increased the pressure and felt a tiny sense of satisfaction, of a dark inner delight filling her heart as breathing grew increasingly difficult and she squeezed the air out of his lungs. Was it wrong? Certainly. Did she care? No, not at all. Her patience had reached its limits with the boy a while ago and the consequences were negligible. And furthermore, what could he do against her? Nothing.

" Do you know why? Because these Chunin exams are so horribly annoying for me, I hate them. No, no, not because they are particularly challenging by any standard, rather the contrary. Everyone I have met so far was so disappointingly weak, but that is not the main problem as I can't exactly blame you participants for that, which would be slightly disingenuous from my side considering you are only Genin."

The girl added more weight while Shikamaru couldn't further ignore the stinging pain piercing through his lungs that was almost crushing him alive and kept steadily rising," No, the fundamental problem is that there is no place for defeat in the Chunin exams but victory. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner in any kind of fight and not two, not three, not four, only one. As long as the very concept of winning exists, there has to be also a loser. So, what does that mean, Shikamaru?"

Asami chuckled as she augmented the pressure for a last time," The moment we have entered this arena one of us was cursed to win while the other was destined to lose, the important question is merely who? Who is going lose? And who is going to triumph?"

The smiling girl leaned down to the boy who was already desperately struggle for the vital substance known as oxygen, not that it was critical. The Uchiha was sure that it would still take some time for him to suffocate," Unluckily for you, defeat was never an option for me and from that moment your fate was sealed. After all, it is a matter of honour and losing to a mere Genin would be slightly embarrassing."

Asami finally loosened her grip on the poor boy and removed her leg from his chest. To be fair, she had maltreated him enough and anything else beyond this point was excessive even for shinobi standards, especially if you were considering that this was just a tournament.

Shikamaru was free again and he visibly enjoyed his newfound freedom breathing as much air in as possible," Ah, huh. Ah, huh. Ah, huh." His chest inflated and deflated under Asami's watchful eyes who decided that it was finally time to make her point. Her hand sunk down to her scabbard searching for the grip of her sword.

Asami drew her sword ramming it down right next to his head so that her blade almost caressed his gentle skin, which was admittedly overly dramatic. Nevertheless, her action achieved the intended effect. She had missed slightly, but that didn't matter much as Shikamaru now got a lovely view on her polished steel and what potentially could have been.

The Uchiha could see it in his wide eyes even without using her Sharingan. The boy didn't show it, but deep within his heart he was scared, and rightly so. Life was a fragile thing. It wouldn't have taken much and he would have been gone.

"In summary, I don't plan on loosing that easily", Asami sighed and looked down on her opponent with a mixture of disgust and disappointment. She had expected so much more from Shikamaru, from Shikaku's son, so much more. Instead, he was the same incorrigible optimist like the rest of them, how she hated them," So, tell me, Shikamaru, what should I do with stubborn people like you, like Lee, like Naruto?"

"People who don't get when they have lost. People who are deluded by their false of victory and are in fact even proud of their own ignorance and infinite stupidity. People like you are so annoying because you leave me no other choice", the black princess picked up her sword and let the flat side blade slide across his smooth face.

"But you are lucky that this is only a tournament and I would never go this far against you, Shikamaru", the princess retracted her steel that had fulfilled its assigned duty reliably as always and hadn't disappointed her yet unlike others.

Asami had seen enough and left the stage hoping that this would be her last match, a wish that should unknowingly come true. Suddenly, the girl sensed a strong gust appearing behind her and sparked by her curiosity she turned her head to the newcomers, or rather latecomers. Her replacement seemed to have, finally, arrived.

Inside the stream of leafs stood two well-known figures. Kakashi was smiling innocently and scratched his head," Sorry for being late."

Well, better late than never. The girl rolled her eyes and was about to disappear again, she had played her part and it was time to leave, bye-bye.

"Hey you", someone interrupted her and it didn't take too much fantasy to identify who the person exactly was. The subtle touch of smug Uchihaness in his voice betrayed him pretty clearly.

Asami stopped her walk and set her eyes on Sasuke," Yes?" Was he talking with her? Who knows.

The Uchiha crossed his arms and smirked accompanied by an aura of superiority," You are honestly better than I thought."

Was this supposed to be some kind of praise, flattery, or rather a provocation? She wasn't sure. The girl responded with a classical annoyed stares. It was incredible how this bunch of prepubescent children was able to get continuously on her nerves, horrible. Did they take some kind of special lessons in the academy, or was she simply an irritable person? Probably the latter, most likely the latter. She mentally nodded.

Asami showed Sasuke her kinder side. Family was family and magic eyeballs connected in a certain sense, even when family was in this case a little bit of an asshole.

"Ah, thank you for your kind words, I will remember them, Sasuke", the girl smiled brightly," Anyway, I wish you good luck for your match then, you will need it."

The boy clicked his tongue," Luck? I doubt it. I don't need any luck."

Asami giggled and abandoned the open field," We will see, Sasuke-kun, we will see. Perhaps you are better than I think, but I doubt it."

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The grand match had finally begun as the two sides clashed together in a titanic struggle for domination of the sand court. To be fair, though, it sounded more epic in the description than it actually was. Sasuke wasn't a bad ninja per se, but reality fell unsurprisingly short of her expectations and the quality of the combatants was definitely lacking. Or long story short, the match was boring, so utterly boring and she had to prevent herself from dozing off, which was way more difficult than you might expect.

"Muuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Muah. Muah. Muah.", a mentally tired Asami yawned with one of her hands blocking her mouth. A power nap might not be a bad idea… No, no, she had to stay focused and concentrated. She couldn't sleep on duty. Although… Nobody was here. Nobody would see her. She was completely alone, more or less. No, no, no.

Leaning her head on her hand, Asami mobilised her last reserves and kept her eyelids open with all the determination she had, which didn't help much in fighting off her drowsiness. She still felt exhausted, and bored, and there was no immediate improvement in sight. The Uchiha was grumbling silently in the background. Hmmmmmmmmmm, annoying.

Fortunately, a happy girl was armed with a variety of chocolate bars and that lifted her mood considerably. Asami produced a few bars from her second pouch that consisted 89.67 percent out of pure chocolate and smiled like a small child about the confectionary in her hands. Asami the chocolatier used the bars and formed an improvised fan in front of her face. Which sort should she take? There were so many, so much choice, so many options, so many combinations. Difficult, difficult. Milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate? Classic, not classic? With marzipan, without marzipan? Caramel, not caramel? Sugar, no sugar? Any special flavours? Hazelnut? Almond? Coconut? Citrus? Asami tilted her head unsure what to do and effectively trapped without any idea how to escape from her current predicament," Hmmmmmm. Hmmmmmm. Hmmmmmm."

"Damn Gaara", complaint the girl equipped with the big fan on the back and whose name she had not forgotten, but only displaced somewhere in her mind.

Gaara? Did something happen? Asami looked up and turned her attention to the boy. What was Suna's the Jinchuriki doing? The answer was apparently not much. He was hiding himself within a massive amorphous sphere of sand, how uncreative, while Sasuke wasn't able to break Gaara's defence, unfortunate. Didn't he possess anything that gave him a bit of an edge, something that could pierce the wall of granular dirt, otherwise Sasuke-kun had a few problems. But the girl was sure that he would somehow make it, he was an Uchiha. So, don't worry.

Anyway, back to her little chocolate issue, which was at moment more important. Asami was rubbing her chin. Dark seemed like a good choice.

Nevertheless, Asami was again interrupted in her selection process by a certain overly chatty bystander who couldn't keep sensitive information for herself, information that under normal circumstances should be better kept secret. What was she thinking?

The grinning Uchiha finally picked one of the bars and unwrapped her sweet sin, her inner child was satisfied. Chocolate, chocolate, a kingdom for chocolate.

" Damn… once he is like that there is nothing that can be done ", Temari complaint focused on the arena and negligently ignoring her surroundings, which was quite unprofessional for an infiltrator like her.

What can't be done? As far as she could see there wasn't anything strange about Gaara. Well, he was admittedly encapsulated in his rotund cocoon of sand for whatever reason and doing supposedly something inside there. But otherwise… What should happen? Something terrible? No, that was relatively unlikely. Asami shook her head while enjoying the soft splinters of chocolate slowly melting on her tongue into a liquid mass of cacao.

"Does Gaara want to mess up the plan?" the girl was again careless and Asami disappointed. Didn't she notice that she standing was right next to her, tsk tsk tsk. But to be fair, she was the only person nearby besides the taciturn Aburame next to her who didn't count. And the duo couldn't know that she knew significantly more than she was supposed to, not to say practically everything.

Asami could sense the growing tension in the air and her premonition told that things were about to change drastically, that change was imminent. The sideshow approached its end and the curtains would be soon to be lifted for the much awaited main event, the grand finale. The smiling Uchiha was understandably excited as every fibre within her was thirsting for battle, demanded to be heard. Asami took a further small bite on her chocolate to appease her unchecked emotions. She had to distract herself with something else because her being in such a trigger happy state wasn't necessarily a good thing for everyone involved. In this kind of situations, she always tended to act … Let us say, a bit rashly.

Her hand was already coiled around the hilt of her sword while her eyes were still centred on the match, or rather Sasuke who was seemingly preparing something specific that required all his attention. Asami furrowed her beloved eyebrow. What was he going to do now? She didn't know.

The boy grabbed his left arm and the first electric sparks appeared around his bandaged hand, which surprised her slightly. His Chakra was strong, and unnaturally pure as far as her eyes told her. There were almost no fluctuations within his Chakra, no significant oscillations. That was… interesting, very interesting as she hadn't seen anything comparable before. But that was mostly secondary. The Jutsu he was using was way more important. There was no doubt that it was the famed Chidori. But how? Where did he get this Jutsu form? Did he try to reverse-engineer it like her? Did he…

Asami was pinching the bridge of her nose as the solution of the mystery dawned on her. Sometimes she was really stupid, wasn't she? How could she have overlooked the blatantly obvious? The answer was just in front of her the entire time. In retrospect, the connex was painfully evident, Kakashi, Chidori, Sasuke.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha", Asami chuckled impishly and genuinely amused by her own stupidity. Whatever, it seemed she had slightly underestimated her fellow Uchiha. He was truly better than expected. Not that it mattered, though. Compared to her, Sasuke was still nothing, nothing like everyone else.

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Sasuke initiated his final attack sprinting down the wall with unprecedented speed. The Chidori cut through the outer layer of sand. Nevertheless, his attack didn't appear to have any visible effect besides an unspectacular tiny little hole. In summary, nothing really extraordinary. Something less flashy and with considerably more bang would have been a better choice.

"No way! Gaara's absolute denfece has been breached", Kankuro cried out.

"It can't be", Temari added incredulously.

Asami was barely able to suppress her desire to break out in laughter. Seriously, "absolute defence"? Aside from the fact that that any notion of absolute defence was laughable a priori, weren't they exaggerating a bit? Mere sand was neither absolute nor an adequate defence against anything she could bring to bear.

The girl observed the cocoon and it was impossible to miss the non-human arm protruding from the sphere. What was that? What was going on down there?

"Did he transform into his complete form?" Kankuro was desperate.

"I don't know! It seems like he had been wounded. This has never happened before", Temari panicked too.

Complete from? Asami's eyes grew wide as she fully realised the implications of the term transformation. No, they didn't, they wouldn't, they couldn't. Deploying a Biju right here in the middle of the village was pure madness. Didn't these idiots comprehend that these tailed beasts were completely uncontrollable, incalculable, unpredictable? If this was the case, then she had to act quickly with full force.

Fortunately, the situation stabilised on its own without warranting her intervention. The cocoon fell apart and revealed a wounded Gaara who was holding onto his bleeding shoulder, otherwise everything was perfectly normal, perfectly normal.

"He was wounded, I knew it. The cocoon was broken while he was still incomplete", Temari confirmed her thoughts.

Asami relaxed for now and the grip on her sword loosened a tiny bit. Nevertheless, the electrified girl was still as tense as before and just a few passes away from throwing the match that would set everything ablaze in a beautiful cataclysm of violence. The invasion was coming, she knew it.

"Eh?" Asami looked up into the sky as she noticed a sheer endless sea of white feathers raining down to the ground that caught her logically by surprise. Feathers? Where did they come from? Confused and curious, the girl stretched out her hand trying to collect one of them for herself.

It didn't work out too well, however. All feathers that touched her skin ceased to exist and simply disappeared like an illusion, every single one of them. How disappointing. Asami really wanted one of them, but the feathers continued to elude her nevertheless as if they actively rejected her.

The Uchiha smiled. Most likely because they were a Genjutsu and these had rarely an effect on her.

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	44. Arc VI Chapter V

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter V**

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Asami glanced sideward looking for a pair of very conspicuous Suna-nin, but she didn't find anyone. Where were they? Now that the invasion had officially started and they had already left her side without notice. Temari and Kankuro had left her. And they didn't even say goodbye, how impolite. Didn't they have any manners?

After all, they had passed some time together at the Chunin exams and had a few memorable moments. Well, they had only one memorable moment to be fair, but nevertheless… As said before, the two could have at least said goodbye. The girl shook her head in disappointment. But this wasn't apparently a gentlemen's war. No, no, it wasn't. However, this also meant that she didn't have to play fair too, that she didn't have to treat them with her velvet gloves anymore. There were no constraints, no limitations, no rules of engagements in this battle. The Uchiha in her smiled. And wasn't that wonderful?

Anyway, what should she do now? What was the plan? Asami set her predatory eyes on the nearest possible target, the three infamous sand siblings and their sensei. They were just standing there down in the arena, a Jinchuriki directly within her reach. Asami was drumming with her fingers on the railing and deliberated with herself. Should she perhaps kill them? It was certainly worth a consideration…

On the other hand, killing them was a fairly risky affair, or rather killing Gaara was a fairly risky affair. Because the issue was that she had never dealt with a Biju before. Asami scratched her head. What happened if she killed the previous vessel? Nothing at all, or would the lovely Biju that was sealed in a mentally very unstable and labile teenager break out of and start running amok, which was relatively likely based on what she knew about the Kyubi incident.

No, no, too bothersome, too unpredictable, too little gain, too much potential collateral damage in her opinion, just let it be and don't fix what isn't broken. As long as the One-Tail was imprisoned and kept in check, everything was fine. Because having a rampaging Biju right here in the stadium was pretty low on her priority list. Especially, when it was her who had to explain to the village council afterwards why she thought that it was a good idea to accidentally "unseal" a Biju. And she was quite sure that because it was funny and she didn't know wasn't the best defence in the world. No, nothing fancy, just stick to the original plan, Asami. After all, she could capture the One-Tail later on, albeit she had still to figure out how to claim her personal spoils of war.

"Gaara, the plan…", his sensei spoke, but Gaara didn't show any visible reaction, which was interesting. Apparently, he was more seriously wounded than she had thought.

"I knew it", Temari concluded," He is suffering from the side effects of the transformation. It is impossible to proceed from here on."

Their sensei grounded his teeth, "What a fool, trying to transform before the signal." Yes, she had to second his opinion, what a fool, what a useful fool for Konoha.

Kankuro countered imediately," Then what are we supposed to do without Gaara?" Ehmmm, retreat regroup perhaps? In the best case, far, far, far away from her.

The Jonin clicked his tongue," Abort the mission. You take Gaara and retreat." Asami smiled happily. See, sometimes her predictions were even correct…

What Asami did next wasn't necessarily a conscious decision by her side, but rather the instincts ingrained into her that acted first and as usually she was satisfied with their excellent judgement and the final outcome. In the end, she could always trust in her body to save her no matter how dreamy and careless she might be, which was good to know.

The attacker was slow, so painfully slow and the Oto-nin paid dearly for his impudence as the rest of his little team did. Her hand grabbed him bashing his head against the iron railing with all of her force. Not once, not twice, but thrice until she heard the familiar cracking she was waiting for. And a fourth time just to be sure. Asami threw the corpse aside and drew her sword because her friend wasn't the only visitor. The second came from behind and her reaction was prompt.

Teleporting a few step backwards, Asami struck her blade through him nailing his chest right to the wall. Unfortunately, the man was still breathing and that disappointed Asami. Was she getting sloppy? Was she already growing old? Perhaps and she didn't like it at all. After all, she took a lot of pride in the terminatory service she provided and failures like this were not well-regarded. Asami sighed. But to be fair, she was only human.

The Uchiha delegated the rest to the lighting flowing through her sword. As expected, the poor shinobi didn't move anymore roasted alive by the high voltage and the nauseatingly sweet scent of burned flesh pervaded the air.

The last two Oto-nin used the opening created by their dead comrade and flanked he from both sides. And their manoeuvre would have succeeded, not really, if she couldn't rely on her ever loyal Sharingan. Asami flickered out of existence before they made contact. Passing each other, the two Oto-nin met the empty air and their fate. She was now above them and it was her turn now. Aided by lightning Chakra, her kunai pierced both of them easily and pinned their bodies down to the ground. Asami liberated her beloved sword that still kept her previous enemy attached to the wall like a nail and with the full weight of her foot she drove her kunai further into the floor beneath her ignoring their cries of agony. Asami didn't know how it felt having your shoulder pierced by her lightning, but it surely wasn't pleasant judging by their faces.

They couldn't, they wouldn't escape her iron judgement. As so many of their now defunct predecessors before, their end was sealed the moment they had the misfortune to meet her. And her judgment was swift. The Uchiha brought her steel downwards and their useless cries finally ceased to bother her more than what she considered necessary. Asami removed her sword again and a thin film of water covered the floor after her blade had split their crania apart like a pair of watermelons.

The attack was over now and nobody else dared to challenge her, for the moment. Otherwise, it was business as usual, enemy dead meanwhile she was still alive despite their best efforts. The girl dusted off her clothes and rearranged the collar of her kimono that got slightly out of place together with a few strands of her hair thanks to the previous confrontation with a four Oto-nin. Thank you, Orochimaru, thank you. Trying to kill her was understandable, but ruining her attire for no reason … that was evil, pure evil.

After she was done, the Uchiha stepped over her former attackers and returned to the railing. So, what the original topic again? Asami pinched the bridge of her nose. She was sure it had something to do with a Biju and a Jinchuriki. Yes, wasn't it Gaara?

Asami looked up and searched for the One-Tail that was surprisingly nowhere to be found. And the same was true for Temari, Knakuro, and Sasuke too. Where had they all gone to?

Asami murmured with a slight sense of bewilderment, "Well, it seems that the problem has solved itself on its own." Not that she had anything particular against it. Because from here on a Biju didn't fall into her area of competency from a physical perspective, and it was time to move out. *cough* after all, she had still to send for Fumihiko as her sense of duty forbid her to leave alone, at least completely alone and without her proper guidance *cough*. And not to forget, her lovely eyes had already located the next series of targets. Asami smiled and formed and vanished leaving behind a covering cloud of dust.

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"Hmmmmmm", Shino hummed evaluating the situation from the sidelines. The Aburame was already used to being ignored, overlooked and generally treated like a wasted side character. Nevertheless, it sometimes hurt, but that didn't matter much at the moment. Shino turned his stoic head to scenery next to him.

He had always known that Asami was a little weirdo even for Konoha's standards, but he had never realised that the little princess could be so … unexpectedly violent. There was no hesitation, no remorse, no doubt, no mercy. The four Oto-nin were just dead and their unmoving bodies stained the floor slowly with a vivid iron red that only warm human blood was able to produce. Behind his dark glasses, the silent Aburame stared at the expanding red lake that didn't stop growing and growing in size. More blood was demanded, more blood had to be shed. But how much more could be offered? How much more could be given? How much was still needed?

"Hmmmmmmmm", the Aburame hummed once further and vanished deciding to follow after a few classmates who required his help.

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"Captain, shouldn't we follow them? Otherwise, they might escape?" an Oto-nin addressed their squad leader and rest of the squad standing on the roof top of the arena. Originally, master Orochimaru had assigned them a very specific kind of mission and very specific VIP to look after in case of emergency.

After all, a village under attack was a very dangerous place and it wouldn't do if their master's future body got damaged by some stray kunai or shuriken. No, no, no, that wouldn't do. An Uchiha was precious, especially in these times when they were so difficult to procure. But their priorities had changed for the moment.

The leading Oto-nin observed the three Genin and how they were slowly advancing through the trees moving away from their position. A dog, a pink haired girl, this Naruto and the Nara boy from before who had apparently taken quite a beating in his previous match. Compared to the rest of his little team, the boy could barely keep up with the pace and it was plainly visible that he hadn't fully recuperated yet.

As a consequence, the Nara was slowing them down significantly and made them an easy target for any possible pursuers, which was of course a fatal mistake. Considering these circumstances, catching up to them shouldn't be particularly difficult, not to say child's play. They were as good as dead.

The Captain smiled beneath his black mask," Yes, I think you are right, Taki, we should follow them. Let's move then…"

"Oh, that is wonderful to hear, really wonderful. I hope, however, that you don't encounter any unexpected difficulties on your way, don't we?" like that of an angel her voice was sweet and tender, way too sweet and tender to be real. The Oto-nin reacted immediately and shifted their heads all towards the smiling girl in black that had joined their group without an invitation. The girl was there standing among them not bothered by their presence. No, quite the contrary, it was her presence, her unnatural aura that bothered them and every fibre of their being screamed one simple word, run.

Asami extended her hand and the crackling of lightning accompanied her movement covering her hand in a sphere of tiny electric sparks. The lightning was dancing around her fingers just waiting to be released. The discharge was imminent and the Oto-nin felt their hairs standing on end by the polarised air.

" Now, how far will you get? Or who do you think is faster, I and my lightning or you?" Asami wore a mischievous smile as she clenched her hand. The Oto-nin moved apart and dispersed, but it was way too late for them. The blinding flash reached them first before her Raiton turned the roof top into a sea of pure beautiful white cantered around Asami. Like tendrils, her lightning expanded outwards cutting through the air in its way. And then, it was over.

The answer was obvious, her lightning had won the race by a wide margin. Asami had got them without exception, all eight of them, an octuple kill. And everything that remained of the enemy was a mass of unrecognizable charred corpses lying on the rooftop.

As planned, the poor bastards got literally toasted alive by her Jutsu and her nose could smell their still fuming flesh, the smell of victory. The Uchiha in her smiled pleased by the outcome. Asami walked forwards until her Sharingan got a good view on the village and inspected the battlefield from afar evaluating the overall tactical and operational situation, which was as expected a total mess. Because at the moment she was completely blind as she had not slightest fucking idea of what was going on, just that the entire village was gripped by chaos.

There was death and destruction everywhere. Suna-nin, Oto-nin, Konoha-nin, ANBU fighting against each other in house to house combat. Explosions here, explosions there, explosions everywhere. Buildings on fire and burning down like candles.

A giant three-headed snake crashing through the walls and wracking havoc on Konoha's infrastructure while eating people as little snacks. Asami rolled her eyes. She could already foresee that the snake would cause some serious budget cuts somewhere in the next years. Repairing all that stuff was going to be expensive.

An arena that was some inexplicable reasons full of infiltrating Oto-nin that had slipped through Konoha's as always useless security. And a Hokage that was trapped inside a magical purple barrier with Orochimaru while the ANBU guards were sitting there and doing fucking nothing. Seriously, was she the only one that was working here?

And on top of that, she had no reliable intel about the location of the enemy, their strength, their movements, their intentions. Not to mention, communications were cut off and she had no contact to her forces whatsoever. Asami was alone and on her own from here on.

In summary, everything was wonderful and going just according to plan, or rather just according to keikaku. Chaos, confusion, disorganisation, disorientation, disruption was all she needed, all she wanted for her plan to work. And urban combat offered plenty of that. The trap was set and she just had to pull the trigger to get her shiny fire work.

Asami unsheathed her sword and looked around. Now, where was Fumihiko and his HQ again located? Ehm, somewhere around the eastern gate if she remembered correctly, and that was annoyingly far away. Without losing further time, Asami accelerated and headed east.

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Led by their Captain Akihiro and forming the vanguard of the relieve force, a squad of Suna-nin advanced through the streets into direction of the Chunin arena. Orochimaru might be strong and a central figure to the overall invasion plan, but the asshole was certainly not going to win this war on his own and he certainly wasn't as invincible as he claimed. In the end, the Sannin needed support and it was him personally who requested Suna to send a significant relieve force to get him and his Oto-nin out of the arena if things didn't go as planned, which was relatively likely.

Because do you think that it was a brilliant idea to attack the Hokage directly at the Chunin exams with only a handful of shinobi at his side and behind enemy lines? No, no, absolutely not, but for mysterious reasons the Kazekage gave his approval to this little operation. And now Akihiro, his squad and four entire companies had the privilege to get as fast as possible to the designated arena and bail their precious snake-tongued ally out. And Akihiro didn't like that, not all. He wouldn't be all too saddened if Orochimaru "accidentally" bit the dust thanks to them coming a bit late, but that wasn't possible. A good Suna shinobi was disciplined and always obeyed, even when the orders were trash.

Finally, the arena was in sight and Akihiro uttered a single name, "Hideki."

The shinobi replied quickly," Yes, what is, Captain?"

"Did you see it too?"

"See what?" Hideki reacted confused.

"That flash, didn't you see it too?" Akihiro clarified. It lasted for a fraction of second, but he could have sworn that there had been a flash, and that this surge of light came directly from the arena.

"Well, not really. Are you sure you aren't imagining anything, Captain?"

"Do you know what, just forget it, Hideki", Akihiro shook his head. Perhaps it was really only his imagination.

"Captain, unidentified target ahead."

"Enemy … or friend?" Akihiro requested.

"Not sure, most likely enemy."

Akihiro looked up and what he saw was … a girl? A girl in a black kimono that carried a sword, and not forgetting was rapidly closing the distance between them in a series of flickering movements. Most likely, his ass. There was no doubt, the girl was an enemy and they would clash soon.

Akihiro immediately ordered," Prepare yourself." The Suna-nin pulled out their kunai and increased their speed.

Akihiro acted first by throwing three of his kunai aimed at her head, which wasn't easy at all considering her movement pattern. And against all predictions, they hit … a barrier. That was just plain unfair, that was cheating. A purple coloured sphere deflected his kunai the moment they made contact and shielded the little princess…

"Oh, fuck", Akihiro's grew wide as he realised a grave truth. Konoha, Kunoichi, pint-sized girl, black kimono, carrying a sword, princess, purple sphere, it was 99,99% her. Now, they were not just fucked, they were royally fucked. And he knew what was awaiting them.

A small white sphere appeared in their path, an innocent concentration of pure Chakra hovering in the air. The experienced Jonin, however, sensed the danger," Disperse, disperse…"

The sphere contracted and was reduced to a tiny little shining grain of Chakra. Akihiro braced himself out of pure instinct and the detonation followed blowing them apart. Akihiro was lucky and thrown back slithering across the sandy ground, while the rest of the squad didn't share his luck. They were killed instantly by the blunt force alone or by being hurled against a concrete wall like lifeless dolls.

"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*, *cough*", feeling a sharp stinging pain in his lungs, Akihiro tried to get up again, but the Suna Jonin got his chance.

A white blade pierced his head while passing by and Asami continued her advance without pausing.

Using her Mangekyo as a navigation system, her scanning the area for the optimal path moving left and right. And they were really good at that thanks to their slow motion mode, especially if you were teleporting and didn't want to crash into a wall.

Asami continued running and turned left, then right, then left, then right through a labyrinth of streets and dark alleys. And on her way, she hadn't met not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven, but eight squads of Suna-nin. Logically, they didn't last long and were quickly dispatched. But seriously, where did these Suna-nin suddenly come from? Popping out of nowhere around every corner, that was annoying. Asami clicked her tongue. They were literally everywhere and she was constantly running into them like a plague.

The Uchiha produced four shuriken out of her pouch and turned around next corner. Asami threw her shuriken from point blank and got four of them while the remaining four had a short-lived encounter with her steel.

The girl proceeded swiftly and took on the next corner and whatever might come next. But this time, it was Asami who was surprised and braked abruptly almost falling over in the process, "What the fuck."

In front of her wasn't just one squad, but what appeared to be an entire fucking battalion and she had to get through this unexpected roadblock. But how?

They would yield, and if by sheer force alone. Setting her Sharingan on the approaching mass of shinobi, Asami clasped her hands together and summoned her Chakra. Three purple spheres darkened the sky with their threating aura as her creations was nearly complete.

" Get … out … of … my … way", Asami released them and they burned just for a moment brighter than the stars themselves.

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"Hahaha", Orochimaru laughed and looked down on his former sensei.

"What is so funny?" Hiruzen panted heavily.

"You have grown old, sensei, haven't you?" Orochimaru smirked," I have never seen you strain so much."

"It is so pitiful, you know. Even you who was hailed as the God of shinobi can't escape old age…", both Orochimaru and Hiruzen were shaken by the growling shock wave of an explosion and they could feel the arena itself trembling. The Hokage looked around and spotted quickly three giant columns of burning ash and dust climbing into the sky.

So, Konoha's little princess had finally become active. Hiruzen smiled pleased and he felt how his forces returned," Orochimaru, you might be right, I can't escape old age, but I don't need to. Because I know that there are others who will take over my place if necessary, while you are completely alone."

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	45. Arc VI Chapter VI

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter VI**

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"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*" Asami cleared her lungs while the massive quantities dust around her finally cleared. It was necessary to get them out of her way, and she had achieved this objective spectacularly, but the girl realised that she had perhaps exaggerated just a little bit with the amount of explosives she used. After all, friendly fire shouldn't be neglected with this kind of Jutsu. They hit hard and using them point-blank wasn't generally recommendable. Fortunately, Asami was a sturdy girl and braced herself for the impact, and not forgetting she could always rely on her Susanoo to take the blast for her. All hail the mighty Susanoo. Well, at least her enemies were all dead, wounded or whatever.

Standing up, Asami murmured," Thank you." Her Susanoo merely nodded and turned back into her purple Chakra.

The girl didn't lose any further time and advanced across a wide field full of wooden debris, destruction, death and melodic screams of pain. The luckier part of the Suna-nin was shredded instantly by her air burst, impaled by the splintered wood like shrapnel or crushed by a shower of rubble and stone. They were lucky because their suffering was over. The unluckier part of them survived her detonation and clung now to their miserable lives. Their bones twisted beyond recognition like little toys, their limbs torn apart. You could hear the pain in their cries, their suffering, their desperation, their hopelessness. Without outside help, these men were destined to die and they knew it. But there was no help, no hope, no salvation, nothing.

Asami spotted a helpless Suna-nin down the street surrounded by a mountain of grey rubble. He didn't move and the curious girl approached him with a quick jump. The boy wasn't much older than her based on his face, two, three years at most. Nevertheless, the boy was an enemy and was slowly bleeding to death. His lungs were punctured by something sharp metallic that glimmered in the sun light and he didn't much time left.

And Asami was the one who was responsible for all this. It was her, her alone who caused all this. The girl looked down at her own hands. Her hands were so pure and white, even though they were sullied with so much blood, with so many lives. Their death was the product of her actions, of her Sharingan, of her power and it felt … wonderful, didn't it?

"Do not pass away, beautiful moment, stay at my side", the Uchiha smiled and picked up a stray pipe stuck into the ground. The pipe was heavy and made of metal, just what she needed, something robust and stabby. Asami sharpened the pipe with her lightning and waited for the glowing red iron to harden again.

The girl strolled forwards and the boy finally noticed her while coughing up more and more blood spilling it across his beige jacket," *cough*, *cough*. Please, have mercy, please. *cough*."

Asami furrowed her eyebrow and her crimson irises stared right into his frightened eyes. It wasn't the first time, but she could read them. His thoughts, his memories, Shinsui's mind.

Coiling her hand around the pipe, the girl greeted the boy with a sweet beam," Yes, I am an Uchiha, Shinsui. And mercy? Don't you think that it is a bit late for that? This is not the first time that I have done something like this, and I also doubt that it will be last time in my life. And once that killing starts, it is rather difficult to draw the line, isn't it, Shinsui?" Asami rammed the pipe downwards and killed the first of many strugglers. Nobody would escape her one way or another, that was sure. She had started this and she would see this through to the very bitter end if necessary.

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"*cough*, *cough*. What the fuck was that!? *cough*", Kyushichi liberated himself and shoved all the fallen debris aside that covered his body like a cocoon. He wasn't sure what happened, but he knew that he and his squad got definitely lucky. Taking a few breathes, Kyushichi calmed down and leaned against the wall right behind him. The most likely sturdiest wall he had ever seen in his entire life, or rather the sturdiest Konoha had to offer. Yes, strong and stable, not to say it was miracle that it was still standing. Because it was this simple and humble wall made of several metres of reinforced concrete that shielded them from the blast and saved them all their asses. Or in summary, walls were your best friends. Seriously, trust in them and they won't disappoint you at moments like these. Especially, when some nutcase began to throw around with oversized explosions in an urban environment. Because otherwise, they wouldn't be here anymore and you couldn't listen to his plethora of thoughts about walls and their functionality as cover.

Kyushichi finally got up and dusted off his jacket while observing the chaos around him. As far as he could tell, the force of detonation had to be significant and whoever was behind it, the person had done a good job at turning the entire block into a dusty wasteland. Respect, the bastard was good. It was as if they were fighting someone from Iwa's infamous explosion corps, but even they weren't that prone to such collateral damage, which was quite atypical for Konoha. He always thought that they were the goodies and would never this kind of brute force approach. Because the blast might have caught him and his three companies completely unprepared, but in exchange the attack should have also gotten more than a few civilians, and that worried Kyushichi. They weren't just fighting a normal Konoha shinobi here, they were fighting someone who was ready to destroy them no matter the cost, no matter the price. And he always thought that the Suna-nin were supposed to be homicidal maniacs in this relationship.

Kyushichi looked around scanning the area for the rest of his squad," Is everyone okay?"

Moving aside a pile of red bricks, Ichiyo rose from the ground," Well, more or less, Captain. Only a few bruises here and there, but otherwise I am fine."

Kyushichi was relieved," That's nice to hear. And the rest?"

"Ouch, same here", Hatsumi followed suit and so did slowly the rest of the squad," But what was that, Captain?"

Kyushichi crossed his arms and let his gaze wander across the destroyed area," That? I have no idea. But based on our surroundings, the fact that we got nearly buried alive by a friendly shock wave, and three angry-looking purple spheres in the air, I would say that someone dropped something with a lot of boom on our position, and we survived."

Hatsumi dusted off her clothes," I see. And what are we doing now?"

" Isn't that obvious, Hatsumi? Clearly, we are searching for the rest of my battalion and will regroup afterwards. After all, there should be still some further survivors, or at least some wounded that need our attention. Because I doubt that we are the only ones that got saved by a friendly wall", Kyushichi grinned and knocked on said wall to underline his point.

Hatsumi agreed with a certain sense of scepticism," True, true."

Thinking positively, Kyushichi maintained his fake grin," So, let's go then…"

"I don't think that will be necessary."

Without thinking, Kyushichi grabbed three kunai and tags and acted. Spinning around, he threw them at the unidentified intruder, but he didn't. The man hesitated and retracted his kunai together with the rest of his squad. Eh?

In front of them was standing a girl in black kimono with a teddy bear in her arms. Wearing a green flak jacket and a headband, the teddy bear looked exactly like a typical Konoha shinobi, which was most likely no coincidence. The small girl hugged her teddy bear tightly and stared at them with her big hopeful eyes," Have you seen Oka-san?"

.

.

.

This was slightly unexpected, not to say totally awkward. She wasn't an enemy, she was just a girl armed carrying a teddy, and apparently searching for her mother. An uncomfortable Kyushichi put his kunai away and gave Hatsumi a questioning look. He could kill the girl, but that was clearly no viable option. He wasn't that heartless yet and slaughtering civvies wasn't their primary objective. So, what should he do now? Leave her alone? Hatsumi was equally at loss and shrugged her shoulders.

Kyushichi smiled uneasily," Ehm, what do you mean?"

The girl tilted her head confused," There was this big bright flash and then everything turned black around me. Afterwards, I woke up and now I am searching for Oka-san. Therefore, I am asking, have you seen her?"

Kyushichi rubbed his hair," Ehmmm, well, no, we haven't seen her."

The helpless girl hugged her teddy more tightly," That is disappointing, really disappointing."

"But maybe you can help me and we can search for her together?" her black eyes glimmered with sudden hope while a certain Suna Jonin was slowly despairing.

This was just ridiculous by so many standards. His entire squad was effectively incapacitated by a little girl armed with a fucking teddy. Kyushichi pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at Hatsumi again. Please, you are a woman, she is a girl, solve the problem.

Hatsumi sighed in resignation and took over," Do you even know who we are?"

"Who you are?" the girl tipped her chin," Isn't that obvious?"

" You are shinobi, and Oka-san always said that shinobi are people who help other people in need. So, are you going to help me, aren't you?" the girl smiled like a little sun while Hatsumi furrowed her eyebrow. The girl was good and Hatsumi nearly believed her story, even though she had the feeling that their little sunshine was lying through her teeth since the beginning.

"Okay, okay, okay, you have won", Kyushichi facepalmed and surrendered," Hatsumi and Ichiyo, you go with the girl and help her search for her Oka-san, while I and the rest of the squad will look for any survivors." Sometimes he wasn't made for the shinobi job, and sometimes he was too kind for his own good, but he was also just a human. Kyushichi sighed. He would probably get never anything in return for what he was doing now, but whatever. One good deed a day didn't hurt.

The two shinobi stared at him doubtingly," Are you sure, Kyushichi? Is that really a good idea?"

The disinterested Jonin shook one of his hands and deflected the question," Yes, yes, just do it, Ichiyo. We have already wasted enough time as it stands now."

"If you say so, Captain", Ichiyo accepted and gave up his opposition.

Kyushichi turned to the lonely girl and her fluffy teddy," See, Hatsumi and Ichiyo will accompany you. Is that okay with you?" The girl looked confused and tilted her head staring right at him with her huge black eyes. She was doing this on purpose, wasn't she? Nevertheless, he knew at this moment that he made the right decision, even when it wasn't the most logical one.

Kyusichi smiled friendly and repeated his words," Is that okay with you?"

The girl, however, didn't react as expected. Suddenly, she started to giggle without control," Do you know what is so funny, Kyushichi?"

"Since I have picked up this teddy and I am wandering around on the battlefield, you are the only one among all the groups that I have met who actually agreed to help me. You agreed to help me despite not having the faintest idea who I am, who I really am. Nevertheless, you made this interesting decision", the girl's eyes gained a sudden sharpness that made not only him take a step backwards.

Her eyes slowly changed their colour to a frightening luminescent red," You have a big heart, Kyushichi, and you are a kind soul. It is really a shame that I have to kill all of you, it almost breaks my heart."

Kyushichi tried to move, but he couldn't. He tried to avert his head, but he couldn't. His entire body trembled petrified by the girl's glowing eyes alone, and so did Hatsumi, Ichiyo, and everyone else. They couldn't escape, the girl had them completely in her hands.

"Therefore, sleep well now. And you don't have to worry about the rest of your men, Kyushichi, they are already dead. Bye bye", Asami smiled and waved happily with her hand.

Kyushichi felt tired, so incredibly tired. His mind drifted away unable to resist the lure of her eyes. His heavy eyelids closed and Kyushichi fell. So, this was the might of the Sharingan.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"… Captain, Captain, … come quickly… I think we have found some survivors…"

 **.**

"… no doubt, it is really Kyushichi …"

 **.**

"… he is still breathing, Captain … it seems they are all still alive …"

 **.**

"… someone has knocked them out… they are all trapped inside a Genjutsu, an extremely strong one too …"

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* * *

Located in his impromptu command "bunker", *cough* some random building he and his staff had occupied *cough*, Noritada was leaning over a map of Konoha and evaluated the current of his forces, of Suna's forces. And his conclusion was relatively simple, their situation was fucked up to a degree that mere human words couldn't even hope to express the quality of how screwed they were. This was supposed to be a simple invasion, they were supposed to catch them by surprise, Konoha was supposed to be completely "unprepared". But no, that wasn't apparently the case.

*Boom* … *boom* …*boom*.

The invasion was neither simple, nor did they catch by surprise, nor was Konoha unprepared. No, Konoha was prepared pretty well as his men had recently found out. Because Operation Konoha Crush had quickly turned into Operation Konoha Grind. And judging by the organised defence they were putting up and the amount of shinobi they were throwing against them on all fronts, Konoha had to be well aware of the invasion plan. But how? Noritada was rubbing his chin.

*Boom* … *boom* … ***boom***.

Where did Konoha get this information from? Who or what gave them away? Did Orochimaru perhaps double-cross Suna, or what? No, no, that was unlikely, wasn't it? The Sannin should be reliable, for the moment at least.

*Boom*.

Noritada focused his eye on the map again and pinched the bridge of his nose with just a tiny amount of profound desperation. The main problem wasn't necessarily that the losses kept rising and rising and that Konoha's streets had turned out to be a meat grinder like never seen before. No, the problem was that his men didn't make any progress at all aside from slowly crawling forwards through this endless labyrinth of buildings. The sole objective of his whole brigade was to take the eastern gate and the arena, and they had failed spectacularly.

*Boom* … *boom*.

His 1st Battalion got practically shredded by a giant explosion and he lost any contact with four entire companies and Colonel Kyushichi. 800 men that were simply gone from one moment to the next and he had no idea why. The 2nd Battalion didn't fare much better and got decimated by a girl and aher fucking teddy bear. Yes, you heard right, a girl armed with a teddy. And no, this wasn't some kind of cheap horror story where you got a creepy gloomy girl walking down the streets with a bloody knife and a doll. No, this was reality and they got a creepy gloomy girl walking down the streets with a teddy and murdering squads left and right while asking whether you had seen her beloved Oka-san. Initially, Noritada thought that this was a bad joke, but it quickly became apparent that this was by no means a joke. Similar reports kept piling up, and not forgetting the losses were more than real. What do you learn? Never underestimate a girl searching for her "Oka-san" and don't hesitate, otherwise she will blow you up.

*Boom* … *boom**boom**boom**boom*.

The 3rd got luckier and remained largely intact together with the 4th that was kept in the reserve, which was in retrospective a wise decision. Especially, now when his men were being pounded across the entire front. It was really interesting, even if you stuck your stupid head out of your cover for just a moment, then you were guaranteed to get bombed back into the stone age a second afterwards. Someone was targeting them with surgical precision and strangulating any advance with a combination of destructive firepower, mass fire, creeping barrages and carpet bombing he had never seen before. And his instincts told Noritada that this someone was a certain very annoying girl that had a weakness for explosives and was now playing fucking field artillery with them. Oh, you wouldn't believe how much he hated this little girl and her teddy.

 ***Boom***

And the 5th Battalion currently secured the rear while they were lured deeper and deeper into the village, almost like a trap. Because Noritada had noticed for a while that Suna's and Oto's forces were spread relatively thin and their flanks were surprisingly thin. Only the 5th and one further battalion stood between them being encircled or not, and that wasn't all too reassuring.

In summary, the overall situation was suboptimal, euphemistically speaking. So, what should he do then? Retreat and fight another day?

"Captain Noritada", a Kunoichi approached him.

Noritada turned his head away from their situation that didn't improve no matter how long he kept staring on the map," Yes, what is, Asuka? Anything new from our eastern front?"

 ***Boom* … *boom*… *boom*.**

She stood straight," Not really. At the moment, everything seems to be quiet. We didn't get any additional reports about our little "teddy" problem."

Little? Little? The crazy bitch was the very definition of a pain in the ass. Noritada furrowed his eyebrow," That is good to hear."

*Boom* … *boom*.

Asuka continued," Otherwise, we were able to stabilise the front line, but we are still getting bombarded constantly."

 ***BOOM***

"Yes, I can hear that, Asuka, I can hear that. And I can feel it", the building was stills shaking from the last detonation.

Noritada set his eyes on the map and reflected," Asuka, a question, do you think we can still win?"

The Kunoichi remained silent," I think I don't understand what you mean, Captain?"

Noritada reformulated thoughtfully," Hmmm, do you believe we can still win this battle? Do you believe that our invasion will succeed, Asuka?"

 **.**

 **.**

The Kunoichi took her time," No, not really, not to say I strongly doubt it. Personally, I think that we have already lost this battle, Captain."

*Boom* … *boom* …*boom*.

"I thought so", Noritada commented while keeping his eyes on the map. He had to do something, they had to something. From a tactical point of view, the battle was already as good as lost and his priority should be now to minimise the own losses and conserve as much of Suna's forces as possible, even if he had to use his precious Oto allies as cannon fodder.

"Asuka."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Tell the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalion to cease any further fighting and fall back to a safer and primarily less explosive position. And don't forget to inform my friend General Yoshitaka afterwards about my intentions to execute a small "tactical" retreat and straighten the frontline just a tiny, tiny bit."

Asuka furrowed her eyebrow," You mean we all make a run for it, right?"

*Boom*… ***boom*.**

Noritada smiled," Yes, exactly, I want to get out of this fucking village as fast as humanely possible."

"And what about the 5th Battalion, Captain? Should they fall back too?"

"No, they will stay where they are. If necessary, then they have to hold the line and keep the corridor open for us at all costs, Asuka, **at all costs**."

The Kunoichi nodded," I understand…"

"Captain, Captain."

Noritada addressed the newly arrived shinobi," What is, Tokimune?"

*Boom* … *boom* …*boom*.

The Suna-nin reported," Oto has sent a messenger. He brings direct orders from his master Orochimaru, Captain."

Noritada was doubtful, "Really? From Orochimaru?" Shouldn't the Sannin be occupied with killing the Hokage? And who said that the asshole could give him direct orders?

Noritada shook his hand, "Whatever, let him come in before I change my opinion…"

"That is not necessary because I am already here", a masked Oto-nin interrupted him accompanied by his two guards.

"Yes, I see", Noritada rolled his eyes. Was it only him, or why were all Oto-nin so fishy? As if you couldn't trust them at all. Probably because you couldn't trust them at all.

"So, what special orders do you have then for me?" Noritada smiled and the Oto-nin passed him a scroll.

He opened the scroll and wasn't particularly amused by what he was reading. Noritada looked up," You don't mean that seriously, right?" This was absolutely suicidal.

"Yes, we do", the Oto-nin confirmed his fears while approaching the nearest window", Orochimaru-sama wants you…"

"Please, please, don't go near any window. Just get away from them and you will save us a lot of trouble", Noritada warned him while continuing reading the stupid scroll.

The Oto-nin reacted confused," Why that?"

"I know you are new here, my friend. But let's say, I don't have the desire to change my command post for a second time this day. Because I can tell you that the first time was already enough for me."

The Oto-nin ignored him," Whatever, Orochimaru-sama wants you to start an all-out assault on the city centre together with all Oto forces."

Noritada came promptly to a conclusion," While I appreciate your master's offensive spirit, I think we will decline Orochimaru's gracious offer." To die.

"You decline? Are you sure, Captain?"

"Yes, pretty much, my friend."

The Oto-nin smiled dangerously and presented him a further scroll with the official seal of the Kazekage," Even when the Kazekage himself has given Orochimaru and me with this order full control over all Suna ground forces involved in this operation."

"Come on, give me the damn scroll", Noritada didn't believe him, but it was the truth. The order wasn't a forgery, the order was real and they were all fucked.

The victorious Oto-nin started walking again," As you can see… Hey, hey, what are you doing?"

Noritada lit a little fire with his Katon and let the scroll slowly burn in his hands until nothing remained but a pile of ash," I am sorry, but I don't know of which order you are talking about? Asuka, Tokimune, did you see maybe any order from the Kazekage? Because I didn't."

A smiling Asuka shook her head and so did every Suna-nin in the room.

The Oto-nin was visibly angry and stopped in front of the window to observe the village," I hope you know what you have done, Captain, and that I will inform Orochimaru-sama and the Kazekage about this."

Noritada maintained his calm façade," Yes, yes, you can do that if you…" He was near window, he was near the window.

Noritada eyes went wide and he shouted," **Take cover!** "

"Eh, what?" the startled Oto-nin and his guards didn't react and they got directly hit by the first explosion. The wall got blown apart and the broken glass slit the Oto-nin open. Unfortunately, it didn't end there and the building got a few more times. One time, two times, thirty times.

"*cough*, *cough*. I told him not to go near the window. *cough*, *cough*", Noritada emerged from a pile of debris with the rest of the Suna-nin and dusted off his clothes. This was already the second time today that he got almost blasted to pieces by a little girl.

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* * *

"What an idiot", Asami giggled mischievously while sitting on top of the eastern gate. Playing artillery was really funny, especially if you had a pair of all-seeing Mangekyo like her. It felt like smiting tiny ants from above with her heel. No matter where these lovely Suna-nin were, she could shower them with her love as long as they were within her range. Yes, from Asami with a lot of love. The girl smiled happily and sipped on her green tea.

Three ANBU appeared behind her and kneeled on the ground. Three ANBU that were patiently waited for her to finish her cup. Three ANBU that the girl ignored deliberately until the Uchiha finally deemed the Root ANBU worthy of her attention," Do you know how long I am already waiting here, Fu, Torune?"

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	46. Arc VI Chapter VII

**VI**

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 **Arc VI Chapter VII**

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* * *

Asami took all the time in the world and refilled calmly her tea cup," Fu, Torune, I ask you once again, do you know how long I am already waiting here? I hope you do, because I am currently very angry with you both." And to a lesser degree with Fumihiko.

 ***Boom* … *boom*… *boom* … *BOOM ***.

Asami still gave them the cold shoulder and didn't even show them her face, and it was unlikely that their treatment would improve in the near future. Fu shook his head," No, we don't, Captain."

Asami maintained her composure and sipped on her tea," You don't? Well, that is hardly surprising considering Root's general incompetence for practically everything. In the end, all of you are just like your master Danzo, inept, useless, and always lagging behind others."

As usual, the insufferable girl taunted them deliberately and it worked. Fu ground his teeth together with the rest of the nearby Root ANBU platoon. Fortunately, they would kill her soon and even her bottomless arrogance and her Uchiha pride wouldn't save her then. She would die by their hands the same way as everyone else before her.

The Yamanaka looked up and hid his anger," Aren't you exaggerating a bit, Captain? After all, we are still ANBU."

Asami just ignored him and Fu ground his teeth further to suppress his emotions as trained. The bitch would pay, that was sure.

*Boom* … *boom*… *boom*.

The girl carried on with an icy voice," I can tell you the answer, however. The answer is twenty minutes, Fu. You made wait here for twenty minutes, even though I have sent for you half an eternity ago. Nevertheless, the best "ANBU" Konoha has to offer took full twenty minutes to get here despite being located just a few hundred metres away from my position. Fu, can you explain me how that is possible? Can you explain me this mystery? Can you explain we how you and your companions were able to not only waste twenty minutes of my precious time, but also twenty minutes of our precious time? What were you doing, Fu? Because I hope for you all that you have spent your time well, or at least a very good reason for being late. Otherwise, …"

 ***Boom* … *boom*… *boom*… *boom* … *boom*… *boom* … *BOOM *.**

The Root ANBU remained calm on the outside, but every single one of them could the girl's aura very clearly. Especially, Fu who was a dedicated sensor ninja. The quantity and the potency of Chakra that Asami was currently leaking into the air was … frightening by many standards. They could feel how the enormous pressure made breathing difficult and was slowly strangulating them alive. So, this was their enemy. This was Kage level and beyond. And Fu finally realised that this time they had really got on her wrong side. He had never seen her that hostile.

The Yamanaka deescalated," Yes, we are a bit late. But in our defence, there were a few complications that required our immediate attention."

"Complications?" Fu could practically touch the sarcasm in her voice.

"Yes, complications, Captain." After all, they had to prepare a few things and adjust the chain of command a bit.

*Boom* … *boom*… *boom*.

"Sure, sure, and I am in secret the Sage of Six Paths, or rather the Rabbit Goddess", Asami clicked her tongue derisively.

"And not forgetting, twenty minutes aren't that much in the end", Fu defended themselves.

"Twenty minutes? Not that much?" Asami stopped her cup mid-air and placed it slowly back on the ground," Fu, who do you think you are to evaluate how much twenty minutes are? Who do you think you are to claim that you can comprehend the importance of a mere twenty minutes? No, you are nothing, Fu. No, you don't understand anything in your ignorance."

"These twenty minutes are everything and time is not a luxury we have in our race against the clock. Don't you see that you and your companions have carelessly wasted what could have been the decisive twenty minutes? The twenty minutes that could have decided this battle, the twenty minutes that could have decided this war, the twenty minutes that could have decided an entire century. Fortunately for you, that is not the case and we still have plenty of time to close our pocket."

*Boom* … *boom*… *boom*… *boom* … *boom*… *boom*.

The girl raised her teacup," But never forget that a thousand years will not bring back what was lost in a single hour, in a single moment, in a single careless decision. And I have the feeling today will be such a day. Today something precious will be lost that will never be restored, something brittle that never will be recovered. I am only wondering what it will be?"

The Root ANBU fell silent and blinked. What did just happen? Did they really all get scolded by a little girl half their age? Apparently, yes.

Asami sighed and enjoyed her warm tea," Anyway, do you at least remember, Fu, why I called you here?" Her question was harmless, way too harmless. Fu immediately realised that this was a trap, this had to be a trap.

Nevertheless, Fu had to report," Well, I think you called us …"

*Boom* … *boom*… *boom*.

"No, Fu, I fear that is slightly incorrect", Asami giggled amused," Or have you perhaps forgotten that I didn't call you? As a matter of fact, I didn't request your presence, nor that of the rest your Root friends. Therefore, I am asking you once again, who did I really call? Fu, who did I appoint to be charge of this operation?"

Asami was playing with them and they couldn't do anything. For the time being, Fu had to bow his head," Sorry, Captain, I can't remember."

"How very unfortunate", the girl shook her head in disappointment," Another thing you don't remember, another thing you have forgotten. It seems that I have to help your memory a bit because today it is surprisingly lacklustre, isn't it, Fu?"

The Yamanaka merely nodded and what followed were eight words. Eight simple words that made his blood freeze and his heart stop. What should he do now? What they should do now?

Melodramatically as ever, Asami sipped on her tea," Fu, can you tell me, where Fumihiko is?"

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* * *

"Fu, I don't like to repeat myself, but where is Fumihiko?" Asami tightened her grip as her eyes grew suspicious. This was a very simple question with a very simple answer, where was Fumihiko? So, why did Fu hesitate? Was there something he didn't want to tell her?

Fu was ripped from his stupor and tried his best to minimise the damage," Well, Fumihiko … is currently unavailable and couldn't come, Captain."

"Oh my, unavailable, what a sad fate and it almost sounds like one of the most typical standard excuses I have ever heard, and not even a good one. I hope for your future, Fu, that you aren't lying to me, do we?", Asami giggled dangerously and let them feel their inferiority, their own insignificance.

"Nevertheless, you didn't answer my original question, my friend, where is Fumihiko?" Asami finally turned her head her black eyes judged them all accompanied by a bitter sweet smile.

.

.

Fu fell silent and the girl narrowed her eyes," Fu, where … is … he?"

The Yamanaka stumbled over his words," Ehm …, …" This was a problem, a huge problem. He had to improvise, he had to lie, but what should he tell her?

Fortunately, Fu was saved by someone, they were saved by someone else," Sadly, Fumihiko was heavily wounded a while ago and is therefore currently incapacitated as Fu had already explained, Captain."

Asami set her sceptical eyes on the third ANBU that accompanied Fu and Torune, "Wounded?"

"Yes, wounded, Captain", the ANBU replied and it was difficult to tell if he was lying or not. Normally, your average Root ANBU was surprisingly good at keeping secrets, but they were truly horrible liars. Not in this case, however. And for some strange reason, the man seemed familiar.

Asami focused her attention on the enigmatic man," What's your name, my friend? Could it be that we have met before?"

The ANBU kneeled," Satoshi, Nara Satoshi. And yes, we have met before. As a matter of fact, several times already."

Asami tipped her lips and repeated his name," Satoshi, Satoshi, Satoshi … Well, I can't remember, but that shouldn't matter much."

"Whatever, you are a Nara, aren't you, Satoshi?" Asami beamed happily and Satoshi felt her suspicion. As expected, the girl didn't believe them, she didn't trust them.

"Yes, I am", he nodded.

Asami inspected her nails," According to my knowledge, the Nara are considered to be relatively intelligent people. Is that true, Satoshi?"

"Well, that depends, but I think that is a bit of generalisation and oversimplification, Captain."

"True, true", Asami chuckled amused," Anyway, how did it happen?"

"How what?"

"Satoshi, tell me how, where and when Fumihiko got wounded? And especially, by whom? Because I am very curious as to my precious friend that should be protected by a small Konoha army of ANBU, Jonin, Chunin and Genin got presumably wounded in combat while you appear to be perfectly fine? Tell me, how did that happen?" Asami tilted her head and not only Satoshi began to sweat interiorly. This was bad. If she found out, then …

"He was ambushed by a group of Suna-nin, but luckily he survived", Satoshi tried his best, but his best wasn't enough.

"Ambushed? So, we have actually managed to get ambushed by an attacking force despite being the local defender and being aware of their presence? That sounds rather unbelievable, doesn't it? And I doubt that Fumihiko was just walking around peacefully somewhere in the forest waiting to be attacked by some mysterious Suna-nin", Asami shook her head in mock disappointment, "Do you think I am stupid, Satoshi?"

Satoshi looked up," No, Captain."

"I know", Asami clicked her tongue," Nevertheless, don't worry, Satoshi, Fu, I know that something is seriously wrong here and I will accept your little ambush story for the time being. You are very lucky that we have … No, that I have currently better things to do than investigating this matter. But if I will ever find out what exactly happened, then I can promise you that this time the consequences will be dire for all of you. Especially, for your master. The old man will pay, that is sure."

"Anyway, I hope that Fumihiko is otherwise fine? After all, I really liked him and it would be a shame if he died now" Asami turned her attention back to the village ignoring the ANBU again. She had the feeling it was finally time.

" Yes, Captain, as far as I know, Fumihiko should be … fine, or to be precise stable from a purely medical standpoint. In summary, the chances are high that he will survive", behind his mask, Satoshi gave Fu a very angry stare. The meaning was clear, he owed him something for just saving their asses, a lot.

"That is good", unknown to them, Asami smiled slightly," So, who is currently in charge of the troops, or rather my troops, Fu? I sincerely hope that it isn't some kind of idiot?"

The Yamanaka reacted finally," Kazuma Hyuga." Danzo-sama.

" A Hyuga? I didn't know that a Hyuga was next highest in the chain of command, but whatever. Tell Kazuma that he and whoever or whatever is under his command should attack immediately."

"Attack?"

" Yes, attack, Fu. I want Kazuma to send everything in, and I mean everything. Everything available, everything he has, everything that can be scratched together by whatever means necessary. I want them to take their preassigned objectives and finally close the pocket, Fu", Asami smiled sweetly.

Fu and Satoshi exchanged looks," And when are we supposed to attack?"

"Isn't that obvious? Didn't I say immediately?" Asami formed a hand seal and set her eyes on the vast horizon. She had still a little surprise in mind, an explosive surprise.

Satoshi shared his thoughts," Yes, but what is the definition of immediately, Captain?"

"Oh, that is easy, right now", Asami concentrated her Chakra," Satoshi, do you perhaps know if there are some Suna or Oto-nin in our way?"

" Well, we can't be totally sure, but there should be one, two, three, maybe four battalions awaiting us. Otherwise, our intel is relatively limited", Satoshi looked at the girl. What was she planning?

"By the way are any friendly units close to our axis of attack?" Asami mused

"Not that I know of… As far as I am informed, … there shouldn't be any units nearby", Satoshi looked unsure. He wasn't a master strategist, and he certainly had no magical overview of the battlefield. Therefore, he could only guess.

"Excellent, excellent."

"Captain, but why should be that impor …. tant …", Satoshi's eyes went wide and stared at Konoha's wonderful blue sky together with the rest of the ANBU. And he absolutely didn't like what he saw. Because he had to fight Asami, he had to fight this. And deep down in his heart, he feared her.

Konoha's sky was saturated by thousands of thousands of little spheres darkening the area below. Satoshi had seen this Jutsu in action once before, but the scale was different. This was massive. Their infinite number illuminated the entire horizon in a mass unintelligible mass of radiant purple.

Her eyes felt tired and heavy, but Asami nevertheless smiled. Sometimes she was even proud of herself. This was a wonderful pointillist work of art, this was beautiful.

Closing her bleeding eyes, Konoha's sky lightened up as the inferno had begun. The horizon exploded in a series of consecutive explosions and flashes of light accompanied by a deafening low continuous growling in the distance. An uneasy growling that didn't stop and made feel every shinobi small inside, very small. Instead, her orchestra continued further, and further, and further. Indiscriminately, the barrage flattened everything in its way. The wall, the outskirts, the trees and Satoshi could already predict that would get the unique opportunity to walk across a lifeless dessert.

Eventually, Asami grabbed her scabbard and unsheathed her sword," To be honest, I don't care how you, Kazuma and company do it or what you do, but I want the entire area be secured within the next five minutes regardless of circumstances. Not a single Suna-nin or Oto-nin shall leave this village alive. They will all die here, die now. Am I clear?"

Fu had to obey, for now," Yes, Captain."

Asami nodded," Whatever, I will expect you there and I hope you won't disappoint me again, Fu."

* * *

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* * *

Noritada observed this lovely wall of fire together with a few other Suna-nin and it didn't take a genius to guess who the culprit was. The bombardment had her signature and Noritada had to admit that a single girl had bested them all, a sad and uncomfortable truth. And they thought Konoha was weak. Jiraiya was somewhere else, Tsunade was missing, the asshole Uchiha clan dead, the Hokage old, and Kakashi … manageable. Instead, they had got some Kage-level Kunoichi lying around and ready to murder them all. Fucking cheaters.

Asuka eyes were fixed on the barrage," Captain, what is this?"

Noritada sighed still occupied with his previous thoughts," That? That was the 5th Battalion and our big, big, big get the fuck out of here sign. And we should hurry up just a bit."

Asuka furrowed her eyebrow," A bit? Captain, didn't you see that?"

"Yes, Asuka, I did. Nevertheless, we should make haste slowly and not act carelessly. After all, breaking out of an encirclement is a very delicate affair and I fear we will run right into her if we try it now. And as long as we are still in the village and some sense of collateral damage, I doubt that the girl will bomb the shit out of us, or at least I think so."

Asuka contemplated, "Noritada, I hope you are right."

"We will see, Asuka, we will see. Hopefully, luck is on our side."

* * *

 **━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━**

* * *

Asami disappeared and Fu and Satoshi were now left alone.

Satoshi turned his head," So, what should we do now, Fu?"

The Yamanaka finally stopped kneeling and stood up," Nothing, just stick to the original plan. I will report back to Danzo-sama while your unit will accompany her."

Satoshi blinked disbelievingly," Accompany her? Have you gone mad, Fu? Didn't you see what she just did, Fu? Asami is even stronger than I remember. What should I do with a single company of ANBU against that? You assholes didn't tell us that the little princess is freaking S-class ++ by now. Is there something else Danzo should have informed us about?"

"No", Fu smiled innocently," Not that I know of." Just that she is an Uchiha.

Satoshi didn't appear to be convinced," Can you tell me why I don't believe you a word, Fu?" Oh, yes, because it wouldn't be the first time that Danzo sent them out without providing them with all necessary information.

"Whatever, we think you will ultimately complete your mission as usual, Captain Satoshi", Fu and Torune left.

The Nara massaged his temples in desperation," What a bunch of assholes." Fu, Torune as well as Danzo. Killing Asami was way, way, way easier said than done.

"Mashiro", Satoshi sighed and drummed his fingers. A solution was needed, quickly. Because this was going to be tricky.

"Yes, Captain."

"Mashiro, status report, what do we have available?"

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	47. Arc VII Chapter I

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter I**

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Satoshi led his ANBU forwards and followed a girl that was relatively difficult to track down under normal circumstances. Especially, in urban terrain. The girl was fast and it certainly didn't help that her princess had a significant head start. Luckily for him, and them, Asami was still the Asami he knew and she was remarkably easy to find on the chaotic battle field with a very simple and reliable trick. When in doubt, then you just had to follow the sound of the nearest explosions. Moreover, if you could hear the crackling of lighting and spot something on fire together with a few corpses, then you were in 99% of the cases on the right way. It was her, this was definitely Asami.

This time, the ANBU passed a group of presumably Oto-nin. They painted the sand, the street, the walls red and their remains littered the ground everywhere. Some of the mutilated corpses were even still breathing. Satoshi ignored what remained of them and the uneasiness inside his heart. She certainly didn't do things by halves, as usual. The Nara advanced further and the sound of detonations indicated that they were quickly getting closer. 1,2,3, *boom*, 1,2,3, *boom*, 1,2,3,4, *boom*.

Satoshi turned his head," Mashiro, so, how many clansmen do we have again?"

"Four Hyuga, seven Yamanaka, five Nara and two Aburame, Captain."

"Seriously, not more?" Satoshi complaint. That wasn't much. What he needed was a lot fire power if they wanted to survive, and not forgetting luck.

"Yes, Captain, I have even counted again."

Satoshi," I see. And how many of them can use the Shadow Imitation and your mind switchy thingy?"

The Yamanaka furrowed his eyebrow," Four Nara including you and five Yamanaka including me. But why should be that relevant, Captain?"

The earth trembled and Satoshi could easily spot the rising column of dust and smoke. He didn't have wait long and a series of further detonations followed. *Boom*, 1, *boom*, 2, *boom*, 3, *boom*, 4, *boom*, 5, *boom*, 6. As usual, the girl loved playing with super heavy ordnance as much as possible. Especially, when she was allowed to destroy stuff and she didn't have to pay for all the damage afterwards.

Satoshi didn't look particularly motivated," Why? Well, have you perhaps ever heard the term first strike capability, Mashiro?

"No, not really, Captain."

Didn't they teach them anything at the academy these days? Satoshi continued," Whatever, the point is that we need to strike and hit hard. And primarily, we need to pin her down, even if it is just for a second. Because I can already promise you, Mashiro, that we will only get a single chance today, and if our attack fails, then …"

" What then, Captain?"

"No, never mind, Mashiro, just forget it", the Nara shook his head. He had to think positively. He wouldn't die today, he had a plan.

"Tell them they should prepare themselves and stun her with everything they have when the right moment comes."

"And what is this "right moment", Captain?"

Satoshi smiled encouragingly, "Don't worry, Mashiro, I can assure you all will know when. Just keep in mind, this is a matter of seconds and if you and the stun team fail, then the chances that we will survive her second strike are … minimal. Yes, just think about that way, either you succeed or we will die. I hope that isn't too much pressure on you, is it?"

The Yamanaka hesitated," I … understand, … Captain."

"Good, that should be everything …", Satoshi stopped and looked up. He sensed the massive concentration of Chakra ahead of them and as a Raiton user Satoshi felt immediately the building up static electricity in the air, the discharge was coming soon. As always, it was Asami and the girl still didn't have any sense of scale. As if it wasn't enough that she could use Katon.

Satoshi closed his eyes and it was a good decision. For the split of a second, his world was now white before the crackling thunder followed, a loud violent snap that tore reality apart.

The Nara opened his eyes again and witnessed the last vestiges of the dissipating lightning. The lightning strike was fast, accurate, powerful, deadly. In short, a combination every shinobi hated and didn't want to fight. So, how were they supposed to fight this? How were they supposed to fight Asami in a direct engagement? Satoshi didn't have an answer and he sincerely hoped he didn't need one.

Satoski looked around and inspected the rest of his men that got hit by her lovely flashbang," Atsutane."

The ANBU seemed disorientated, confused, and it took him a few seconds until he finally reacted," Yes, … Captain."

"Get Tanosuke, Satsuki and Arisa and take them with you."

"And where if I may ask?"

Inform the rest of that we are going to engage our target as planned and they should be ready to send in everything they have."

"Yes, Captain."

"By the way, can you do me a little favour, Atsusane?"

The ANBU looked confused," Yes, and what?"

Satoshi was in a good mood and smiled with a certain sense of satisfaction," If there is some kind of big explosion in the next, let's say, twenty minutes, then can you please go and tell Danzo. Firstly, I told him so and I was right as always. Secondly, he is a fucking giant asshole and he can go to hell. And thirdly, he has now the honour to stop a little psychopathic girl before she murders us all and I wish him bad luck."

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Her lighting disappeared and a happy Asami was satisfied with her results. Her Raiton had done performed admirably and the entire place was now covered by a few more corpses. How many did she get again? 5, 21, 45, 76, 134, 245, 312 Oto-nin? Well, it didn't matter, these were just numbers. As long as they were dead everything fine, wasn't it?

Asami observed the battlefield and beamed. Her lightning had toasted, or rather grilled them alive, and charred bodies surrounded her. They really thought they could get past her, they really thought they could escape, but they were wrong. Assisted by her light steps, Asami strolled forwards and found a last survivor. The man was burnt beyond recognition, but he was surprisingly still breathing, or rather chocking. The girl plunged her sword downwards while gifting the rest of his companions with her best smile.

Asami smiled at a large group of frozen Oto-nin. Their eyes were all fixed on her and they were holding their breath. She could see it, she could feel it, the fear, the dread, the angst, the terror, the desperation. They feared her, they were scared by her just like that, wasn't that cute? No, it wasn't, it was sad. In the end, they were just small fries. Nevertheless, they were enemies and it was obvious what awaited them. And who said she couldn't toy with them a tiny bit?

Asami stepped slowly forwards and their faces were growing considerably paler with every step she made. Eventually, Asami stopped and her hand was once again playing with lighting," So, who is next. Because I am waiting."

Three Oto-nin snapped under the pressure and attacked first, or rather they died first. Asami shook her head. They didn't learn anything, did they? The girl extended her hand and her lightning bolt crisped them before they even could get close. Their flesh was burnt and now they were nothing but lifeless husks. The three Oto-nin fell and hit the ground before the eyes of their comrades.

The Oto-nin stared at the three dead men and the corpses aligned behind the girl. They all had tried, and they all had failed without exception. Instead, they were sliced, beheaded, eviscerated, mutilated, electrocuted, scorched, burned, flambéed, blown apart, butchered, massacred, slaughtered by the demon in black. And for the first time in their life, they reconsidered their immediate loyalty and their chances of survival. Every Oto-nin feared Orochimaru and what he could do, but fear alone wasn't enough anymore to compel them to fight. Because Orochimaru was far away, but the girl was close and right in front of them, which made making a choice quite easy.

Asami was surprised by what happened next, not to say she almost couldn't believe her own eyes. They dropped their kunai, the Oto-nin dropped their kunai, their shuriken, their swords, their axes. They dropped everything and raised their hands unanimously," We surrender."

Asami tilted her confuse head and blinked once, twice, thrice … An age old mystery was finally solved and a curious girl had an answer. Unbelievably as it might sound, shinobi were indeed able to surrender, she had just to massacre enough of them before they would see reason.

" Look, was that really so difficult?" Asami smiled while her Chakra filled the area together with the wonderful crackling of high voltage lightning. They electrons were dancing and the tension was palpable.

"Unfortunately, I don't take prisoners. Especially, not when they are from Otogakure", Asami waved goodbye," So, sayonara." Her lightning disintegrated them and an industrious Asami felt she was definitely close to setting a new record today.

Asami walked around and picked up some random piece of clothing that a friendly Oto-nin gifted her on a voluntary basis," Yes, that should do it."

Her sword, or rather her blade required a little of love because blood was corrosive and she didn't like rust. Asami polished her sword and inspected it.

"Captain."

The blade was again clean and shiny enough to reflect the sunlight.

"Captain."

The edge was a bit dull and she should probably sharpen …

"Captain …"

"Yes, I hear you, Satoshi, and I am listening ", Asami turned her head slowly and gave the Nara an annoyed look.

Satoshi stood his ground, however, while the rest of his company surrounded the area and her. Asami observed the ANBU lining up and grew suspicious. What were they doing? Did these idiots get some funny ideas or what?

Asami ignored them and narrowed her eyes, "So, what do you want, my friend?"

The Nara scanned his surroundings and he didn't fail to notice the amount of corpses everywhere. Satoshi was nervous and he hoped that luck would be today on his side," I am sorry, Captain, but I am here to apprehend you. You are for the time being officially under arrest." Did it work? Was it convincing enough?

Apparently, not. Asami smiled friendly," What did you say, Satoshi? Because I think a certain high ranking individual vested with full and unlimited authority by the Hokage himself has misheard right now. So, could you please repeat yourself, Satoshi."

As expected, she didn't attack. But this was delicate affair and he had to be careful from here on, or rather good acting was needed. Satoshi laughed uneasily and played dumb," Well, … I was tasked … to arrest you, Captain, and here I am. Therefore, I hope you will stop resisting and cooperate with us. After all, we are civilized people and can solve this peacefully, can't we?"

Asami narrowed her eyes further, "Cooperate? And who ordered my apprehension, and what I am even supposed to be guilty of, Satoshi?"

" The Hokage, Captain."

"The Hokage?"

"Yes, the Hokage. And now …"

Asami glared at him and her eyes alone shut him up," Satoshi, I warn you, I warn you, even my divine patience is limited. Because I don't like jokes. Especially, not this kind of jokes. Therefore, stop with this nonsense before I get really angry."

Asami ground her teeth and tightened the grip on her sword," And now get out of my sight, Satoshi, immediately. You have your orders and I hope you will execute them properly instead of wasting my precious time with such trivialities."

Asami took her sword and left. There were still a few units nearby and they were waiting for her to pay them a friendly visit, and who was she to make them wait?

"But it is true, it isn't a joke. Look, Captain, according to this scroll …"

"Scroll?" Asami turned her head and gave him a disinterested look," What is this, Satoshi?"

The Nara presented her the scroll," Ehm …, well, in virtue of this scroll, I am officially authorized to arrest …"

"Yes, yes, I get it, I get it", Asami pinched the bridge of her nose being visibly annoyed," And now give me this stupid scroll, Satoshi. Let me see this highly official order."

He walked up to her and an impatient girl snatched the scroll from his hands. Asami grumbled angrily and scanned the document. She couldn't believe it, they were in the middle of an invasion and she was occupied with preventing herself from being arrested by a bunch of wannabe policemen that were getting seriously on her nerves. Especially, because she was sure that this was just a classic case of miscommunication or misinterpretation and a few trigger-happy idiots in the chain of command who were eager to act. Why should the Hokage arrest her? She had served her entire life for this stupid village and how did Konoha repay her, with an arrest order?

And to her surprise, Satoshi wasn't lying. The scroll didn't seem to be a forgery. The seal, the paper, the writing, everything was authentic down to the smallest and the document ordered indeed her arrest. Asami furrowed her eyebrow," Satoshi."

The Nara nodded and kept his hands behind his back," Yes, Captain."

"Who gave you this scroll, Satoshi?"

Satoshi smiled, "Isn't that obvious? It was the Hokage himself."

"I doubt …", Asami gripped her sword and her first reaction was to cut him in half. The Nara dodged, however, by ducking and got a nice view on a wonderful blade passing right in front of his eyes. This was close.

Satoshi backed off immediately still holding a kunai in his hand. Asami titled her head and chuckled," I am disappointed, Satoshi, do you really I can be killed by a mere kunai alone? You will need more, way more."

"But I am lenient today and give you all one last chance …" Asami stopped moving and Satoshi smiled. They had got her, they had won. Asami was strong, but she was also proud and this hubris would be her downfall. Five Nara formed a hand seal and their shadows pinned her down.

" Satoshi, I hope you know what you have done", Asami her black eyes stared at him and Satoshi hesitated for just a second. He felt this uneasiness and he couldn't ignore it. Her eyes, they weren't normal, they were flickering in a strange mixture of purple and red. Something was wrong here and had a very bad feeling.

Unconsciously, the Nara made a step backwards and Mashiro turned his head," What is Captain?"

Forget the plan, forget everything. Satoshi panicked, "Kill her, kill her immediately! What are you waiting for, you fuckers, I said kill her !" Asami had to die. Because he knew her and he knew what she would do.

Following his order, the first wave of ANBU attacked. They charged and clashed against her barrier, but her shield didn't budge. Satoshi had expected, the shield was still as stupidly sturdy as usual. The second wave followed and once again the ANBU failed to pierce. The barrier remained firm.

The third wave charged, but this time their blades didn't snap, didn't bend. Ten ANBU attacked and their swords struck her barrier with the entire force. And her purple shield finally yielded. Yes, the shield fractured and tiny cracks began to surface everywhere growing larger and larger. Like glass, the barrier shattered and they really thought they had her. They thought it was over. But they were wrong, this wasn't her end, this was only the beginning.

Satoshi fell silent, very silent and so did every other ANBU. They didn't sweet taste of victory. Instead, they felt emptiness, shock, disbelief and a certain Nara betrayal. Satoshi stared at the macabre scene unable to avert his eyes. He recognised this Jutsu, he had seen this power before. Because he hadn't forgotten Shisui and what they did. And that moment Satoshi ultimately realised that Danzo had sacrificed all of them already a long time ago. The old man had finally got him. Satoshi laughed. In retrospect, everything was so obvious, she was an Uchiha all along. How couldn't he have seen it? An Uchiha that had slipped for years under everyone's radar, but the senile asshole knew it.

The ten ANBU broke the shield and their swords got close, but getting close was unfortunately not enough. Their lifeless corpses were hanging in the air like puppets and coloured the ground and her kimono slowly red with their dripping blood. They died immediately. After all, who could have expected to be stabbed a magical ribcage? The purple ribs materialised and tore his men apart or they were now lined up like pearls on a string. In front of them, stood a giant humanoid skeleton and a girl bathed in blood.

A fine purple mist saturated the area. It was her Chakra that formed a radiant aerosol, small particles of pure shining Chakra that permeated the air. It was a beautiful scene, a kaleidoscope of purple, light and death. Unfortunately, Satoshi had seen this Jutsu once and his face paled considerably.

Asami was beaming and he could see the joyous glee glimmering in her eyes. There was no anger, no hate, the girl was elated, ecstatic and grinning evilly," Satoshi, you don't know how long I have been waiting for this. Today is finally the day I can kill all of you, isn't that wonderful?"

Asami snapped her fingers and produced a tiny little spark. A tiny spark that would burn them all. Because explosions were fun, and bigger explosion were even funnier. Her spark fell and ignited her mixture of Chakra and oxygen. And for a few seconds, a gigantic flare enlightened Konoaha's sky in a wonderful spectrum of purple.

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	48. Arc VII Chapter II

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter II**

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Armed with his cane, Danzo overlooked the village from Konoha's wall and he was satisfied with what he saw. The air was burning purple and a gigantic fireball devoured everything in this way. Satoshi was apparently successful, probably more than he had initially expected. Live was full of surprises, wasn't it? He had completed his mission as ordered and for a fraction of a second Danzo's heart regretted his choice. He really regretted losing such a valuable pawn and a full company of Root ANBU, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good and ultimately nobody was irreplaceable, even Satoshi. Nevertheless, their loss was regrettable.

Danzo smiled and observed the fireball slowly dissipating, "Fu." The fight had begun and he would join soon.

The Yamanaka obeyed," Yes, Danzo-sama."

"Are our friends on their way, Fu?"

"Yes, as far as I know, Shibi and Tsume have already received the signal and started the attack, while Naritomo and his shinobi command are currently advancing in her direction. In short, they will make contact with her soon unless something unexpected happens."

It was wonderful when a plan worked, wasn't it? They were all in for a very nasty surprise. Because in a few moments they would meet an adrenaline-filled, trigger happy and hyper aggressive girl prepared to murder everyone on sight. So, what would happen? Well, the answer was obvious. Everything that was needed was just a tiny little spark and her world would go down in flames. Danzo smiled," And how much do they know?"

Fu," As ordered, Shibi and Tsume weren't notified about the changes in this operation and shouldn't be still unaware of what exactly is going on."

"And Naritomo?" Danzo investigated.

Beneath his mask, Fu grinned," Naturally, he was informed about her arrest and the possibility that Asami could potentially turn traitor. Therefore, we advised him to attack her and kill her on sight if necessary."

Danzo smiled satisfied," You and Torune never disappoint me, Fu. And now tell all other Root units that they should fall back as planned. Satoshi has fulfilled his purpose and I don't see any reason why we should engage her further. Especially, when we still have a few Genin we can throw in first before going in. After all, a bit of friendly fire has never hurt anyone."

"Understood, Danzo-sama", Fu lowered his head and left.

"So, it has begun", Danzo noticed the purple spheres hovering above the village and he didn't have to wait for the detonations. This was the next round. Once again Konoha was bathed in pure light and once again he could feel the enormous shock wave rattling through the air and probably shattering every window within a radius of a few kilometres. Why had the Uchiha always to be such troublesome opponents? The girl certainly didn't do things by half and he was sure by now that Asami alone already caused more damage to the village than the entire invasion combined.

Danzo discarded his cane and removed the seals from his right arm. This was going to be a hard fight.

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A sweet, candid voice whispered into her ears. The voice was luring, tempting and seductive and the message these honeyed brought was clear, kill them, kill them all. She should burn, she should burn them alive. Because this was justice, this was her justice. The voices told her what was to do, what was right, what was just, and part of her mind didn't bother to question them. After all, they were right, weren't they? They merited death. They had wronged, they had betrayed her, Konoha had betrayed her. Asami clenched her fist and her Susanoo marched on. Nothing should stand in her way and she would get them all. She would eradicate them.

After everything she done for this stupid village, after everything she had sacrificed for Konoha, they really turned on her and tried to kill her. Didn't she deserve more, didn't she deserve better? Asami giggled. Yes, she did. She deserved so much more, infinitely more. She had shown a lot of patience, a lot of leniency, a lot of good will. Instead, she was only rewarded with an iron kunai. She didn't get anything. Where was Konoha when she needed them? Where was Konoha when she lost her mother? The answer was nowhere. In the end, she had always to rely on herself.

Asami felt the disappointment, the feeling of betrayal, the burning hatred and it felt good. The voices grew stronger, while her resistance weakened.

Kill them.

Destroy them.

Kill them!

Destroy them!

 **Kill them!**

 **Destroy Konoha!**

Asami shook her head and banished her thoughts. She could still suppress them, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.

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* * *

Naritomo took cover behind a wall and shielded himself from the second series of explosions. A sea of purples flames before and now this. Seriously, what was going on here? Not only got he and his men nearly caught up in two consecutive blasts, but they were also relatively close to epicentre and whoever or whatever was responsible for this attacks. Was it a Suna-nin? Was it an Oto-nin? Or was it an ally? Naritomo had no idea and he wasn't exactly keen to find out which was the right answer to his question.

Nevertheless, he had a hunch about who was behind all this and he didn't like the implications at all. Naritomo remembered Shimabara. He remembered a certain Kunoichi and ANBU he met back then. He remembered the purple of her Chakra and what she could do. And apparently, now their commanding officer, a lovely little girl named Asami had turned traitor and they were supposed to attack her. It didn't take much to put two and two together and reach a relatively unpleasant conclusion. In short, Naritomo had a very feeling and he was probably not the only one. Especially, because a low ominous grumbling sound was steadily getting closer. In fact, the relentless pounding of explosives was wandering right into their direction. Perhaps they should all run, shouldn't they?

" *Cough*, *cough*, everyone okay?" the dust finally settled and Naritomo inspected his unit. Some Jonin, a few Chunin and a lot of nervous and tensed up Genin, that was everything he had. The majority of them was young, almost too young and had probably never seen real combat in their life before. Hopefully, they would survive. After all, they were Konoha's future.

"Yes, more or less, Captain. Or rather I think so, *cough*, *cough*", Shino answered and dusted off his clothes like everyone else. Apparently, they didn't take any casualties, but they caught involuntarily a lot of dust. After all, you didn't expect being suddenly buried by a giant avalanche of dust and ash rolling over you. Naritomo remembered the dust. Dust, dusty dust, and even more dust everywhere together with lovely draining debris. That was funny. And he could still hear the tinnitus ringing.

"That's good, that's good", Naritomo shook his head to finally dispel the annoying in his ears, which didn't work obviously. Damn explosives.

"Should we advance further then, Captain?"

"Advance?" Naritomo gave him an incredulous stare," Do you want to die, or what? Didn't you see the giant torch flaring up? No, no, no, I am not stupid and I still have plans for the future. We stay right here and won't move a fucking …"

Naritomo fell silent.

"Captain?"

He heard something and the veteran he was he recognized this sound immediately. The sound of a travelling shinobi and the air resistance. But it wasn't one shinobi, or two, or three. They were many and they were damn fast.

Naritomo turned his head very, very slowly and saw a group of ANBU circling around the corner of the street. 5, 13, 39, 52 ANBU entered the street and advanced quickly. The ANBU were battered, bruised, bloodied. Their clothes ripped, their armour damaged, and completely covered by white dust. But more importantly, the ANBU were all running without exception and they were rapidly coming closer as if they were actually trying to escape from …

Another group followed. This time, however, they were just a bunch of normal standard Konoha shinobi with your lovely green flak jackets. Nevertheless, their friends visibly took quite a beating too. Covered in ash and dirt, they were also running. And judging by their faces, they appeared to be slightly … panicked, considerably panicked.

Shino gulped," Captain, …"

Another group. A lot of Suna-nin and they were the same. Scattered, beaten, disorganised, confused frightened, destroyed, panicked and running for their lives like everyone else as if they had gone through hell.

"… what …"

Naritomo spotted a group of Oto-nin and their number was once again ... considerable, frighteningly considerable. They were on the run and fled the battlefield as fast as they could.

And another group.

And another.

And another.

And another.

It didn't end and their numbers kept growing. Naritomo paled. Whether ANBU, Konoha, Suna or Oto, they were all on the run trying to save their skin. And it was painfully obvious that this wasn't some kind of ordinary retreat. This were the remains of entire companies that had completely disintegrated and dissolved in a matter of seconds. These shinobi had met something, something that made them run. And Naritomo knew who or what. They were fleeing from her, a whole small army. In fact, Naritomo could feel the earth tremble and the cascade of violent explosions was the last clue any thinking human being needed. Something big was coming and it was coming fast. The girl had gone berserk and they were royally fucked. How were they supposed to deal with the princess on steroids? Exactly, they weren't.

"… is going on here?" Shino looked for an explanation and the answer came immediately.

"Captain?"

"RUN!" Naritomo sprinted away. Being the first to run wasn't the most honourable act he ever did in his life. Especially, as a member of the Sarutobi clan. But it was well known that you couldn't buy anything from honour when you were dead. And he was correct. Unfortunately for him, life wasn't particularly fair and Naritomo was just a few seconds too late. They were already doomed and what he saw next was frightening beyond description. You didn't want to be at the receiving end of this … thing. A gigantic purple armoured behemoth crashed through the nearest building and flattened everything in its way with brute force. Surrounded by a menacing purple Chakra and plated heavily, the thing just ripped an entire apartment block apart with its bare hands without even blinking. Steel, concrete, wood, stone, it didn't matter. Nothing could stop the raging purple beast. This juggernaut crushed everything and everyone beneath its weight. Compared to this, Naritomo felt small, extremely small. This wasn't a power mere mortals and humans like him could ever hope to compete with, not to mention fight. This was the power of the gods and they were dead. And Naritomo was right.

Amidst a shower of falling debris, the behemoth didn't stop and massacred the fleeing shinobi in front of his eyes. It didn't take much, just a purple arm that grabbed them from behind and smashed them like the tiny ants they were. They didn't stand a chance because they were nothing and their blood adorned now proudly the purple armour of this monstrosity. Nevertheless, a few survived. They escaped her wrath. But that wasn't enough to save them. The purple construct didn't even think to give them a small pause. The next strike came and the princess decided to fuck them even harder. Why? Because she could and to his annoyance she loved her explosives. After all, more was always better.

4, 9, 14, 25 purple spheres surrounded the armoured avatar and her pure Chakra made them grow faster and faster. Naritomo began to sweat. The strike was imminent and it was definite now, the girl had gone completely insane. This was not only going to cause a lovely huge crater and a nice artificial lake for Konoha in the future, but this was also going to kill them all. Because creating craters was fine, but he surely didn't want to be a victim of her new urbanistic policy, namely demolishing the entire village with insane amounts of explosives. You see, being on the front lines sucked.

"TAKE COVER!" Naritomo jumped behind the nearest object and closed his ears. And then, everything turned bright before the blast shook the ground and his body. He could feel how the shock wave travelled past him together with a tsunami of rubble, bricks, dust, earth, stone, dirt and whatever else. The surrounding buildings yielded and were shredded easily like tiny little cardhouses. As expected, her methods of clearing the entire area were not only effective, but also almost killed him with a lovely steel girder ready to spike him and huge boulder. In short, never underestimate a nice heavy object flying through the air with a lot of kinetic energy. The explosion ended. Nevertheless, the rain of debris didn't end and tiny fragments still showered their position.

Naritomo got up and what he saw was destruction, pure destruction. He made it, but that couldn't be said of what remained of his former battalion. The majority of Genin wasn't lucky like him and their corpses were everywhere. Smashed, slaughtered, murdered, their blood covered the ground and among the few that miraculously survived the ordeal. Many were heavily wounded, but they still lived and that was what mattered. Naritomo looked around and assessed the damage. He laughed and laughed and laughed. After all, how couldn't he? On a rough estimation, three fourths of his battalion were lost, dead, killed, just like that. A single strike and they were all gone. And the grim truth was, they weren't even the main target, they were just unintended collateral damage and nothing more. She didn't even try. Nevertheless, she nearly got them all. This wasn't a fair fight, this was a massacre.

Naritomo looked up and glared at the purple armoured behemoth. Covered in fire, it was still standing without a scratch, without a crack, without any damage. This thing tanked the explosions point blank and was still there to assist their destruction. Unmoved and unfazed by the carnage, the amour moved and approached them. It had spotted them and the purple thing was getting closer.

Naritomo felt the fear. His hand was shaking. It … was … over. Nevertheless, he pulled out a kunai as useless as it might be. His last act of defiance in front of the inevitable. And someone else had the same idea. Someone threw a set of kunai that bounced off her Chakra.

They were done, weren't they? Naritomo closed his eyes and waited, and waited, and waited. But nothing happened. The armour just disappeared and what welcomed them was an innocent smiling girl covered in blood, their blood, and she didn't seem bothered at all. Her black kimono was drenched in red and she wore her new colour proudly as ever.

Asami smiled innocuously," So, could you please tell me who was the idiot that threw these kunai? Because as far as I know, it isn't particularly nice to attack a close ally, is it? And I want to have a little talk with the person in question."

Naritomo gulped. He didn't believe her and he wasn't only one. They all feared her and what she could do.

Asami shook her head in disappointment and touched her aching heart," That is just sad. After dedicating my entire life to this village and giving everything I ever had and more, Konoha's brave shinobi don't have the courage to even answer a simple question. I have killed, murdered, slaughtered, bled, suffered in Konoha's name, but I don't get anything. You know, that hurts and I kind of feel … betrayed."

The girl looked up and her eyes made Naritomo freeze. She was, she was …," So, once again, who threw the kunai? And don't worry, I don't bite."

Shino raised his head and he was trembling, strongly" I was it. I threw the kunai."

Asami tilted her head," Look, was that so difficult? Anyway, what's your name?"

He hesitated," Shino, my name is Shino."

"Shino, a lovely name", Asami smiled and that made him visibly uncomfortable," And why did you attack me? Because I hope for you that you don't have such strange ideas like arresting me for treason too, Shino. After all, you can see what happened with the last batch of idiots that were stupid enough to try this nonsense."

Naritomo began sweating. She knew, she knew. The current situation was more than simply delicate. They were walking on thin ice, very thin ice.

Her hand wandered to her sheathed sword," So, tell me, Shino, are you with me, or you against me? Will you repeat the mistake of your unlucky predecessors, Shino?"

 **.**

 **.**

"With you, I am with you. I threw the kunai because I was scared ", Shino was visibly nervous. Her eyes, they were terrifying. He heard about the Sharingan, but seeing them was different. Their luminescent red gave them a ghostly appearance and they were currently staring at him.

Her hand left the hilt and she seemed satisfied," I see, that is wonderful. I am happy that were able to solve this misunderstanding so easily, Shino."

Asami smiled, "And now, if you will excuse me, I still have a few Suna-nin and Oto-nin to deal with." And ANBU. Unfortunately, these cowards were way, way better at running than fighting and dying like a man wasn't a particular strength of them.

"Why did you kill her?"

Asami stopped and turned her curious head at two Genin," Killed who?"

"You killed Kyoko", a boy glared at her together with his friend. A nameless Genin that held a dead and bloodied girl in his arm.

Asami furrowed her eyebrow," Yes, apparently."

"Apparently!? **Apparently!?** ", the boy was furious.

Asami smiled and tilted her head," Yes, and what's the problem? After all, I doubt that I can bring her back."

"The problem? The problem? Why did you kill her?", the boy clenched his fist.

Asami mused, "Why? I have killed so many today that I have stopped counting, my friend. And to be honest, I didn't see you until it was too late and therefore you got unfortunately caught up in the blast. In short, I made a mistake and you were just collateral damage …"

" **Aargh!** " the Genin with a kunai and Asami quick drew stabbing him through the heart. His body fell and hit the ground.

Asami shook her head," Disappointing, this was a mediocre decision."

The surrounding shinobi stared at her in shock. They were scared and they gradually pulled out their kunai. The shinobi took a combat stance and they focused their eyes on her. Asami was surrounded and she could sense their Chakra trembling in fear. They were nervous and their faces betrayed them. Nevertheless, they directly opposed her.

" This is unfortunate, very unfortunate. And I thought Konoha was with me. In the end, I am truly alone. So, sayonara", Asami giggled ominously and extended her hand to create a lovely purple sphere.

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	49. Arc VII Chapter III

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter III**

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It was over. It was definite by now, everything was over, everything was lost and she couldn't do anything. Asami exhaled and suddenly stated to laugh. Yes, she felt this inner urge to laugh and she followed her natural instincts. Asami didn't cry, didn't despair, didn't complain, didn't feel sad. Instead, she laughed and her laughter didn't stop no matter what. She couldn't believe what had happened right in front of her was ridiculous, surreal, absurd. But it was nevertheless true and reality didn't play a trick on her. She had done it, she had killed them all.

Her Susanoo faded away and Asami continued her sinister chuckle while standing amidst a crater, her crater and a lifeless desert of rubble and pure destruction. Unsurprisingly, your average Konoha shinobi didn't have a magical. And unsurprisingly, they didn't take her lovely present all well. They were crushed in their insignificance by her might and brute force.

Asami laughed uncontrolled and unchained. They were nothing and Konoha's best died so easily. Asami had crossed a line and there was return anymore. But her her heart felt nothing, absolutely nothing. Everything was destroyed, crumbling, burning in ruin. Asami stood at the precipice of her own life and witnessed her own fall. Nevertheless, she could only laugh in face of her own fate. Her blood was boiling and she was trembling with ecstatic excitement. All the disappointment and invigorating hatred was wonderful and nourished her desire to kill, to purge, to raze the village. Thousands upon thousands had died today. So, what were a few thousands more? She was stained in so much blood the she had long since stopped caring. Her heart wanted to destroy and see them go down in flames and fire. But that was a bit too much, wasn't it? Her sanity slowly eroded, but she didn't give in yet. Perhaps she was really a tiny bit crazy? After all, she was still an Uchiha and a tiny bit of insanity was an Uchiha's virtue. As far as she knew, her clan had a presentable track record in that regard, didn't it?

Therefore, Asami kept laughing, and laughing, and laughing while controlling her murderous thoughts. Asami looked around and inspected the surrounding ruins and the masses of buried corpses. Step by step, Asami playfully walked over all the accumulated rubble and tried not to misstep. After all, the debris made the ground unsteady and her princess didn't intend to fall. Slowly but surely, Asami progressed walking past fallen kunai, fallen swords, fallen forehead protectors. They were everywhere and they almost seemed to accuse her of what she had done, of her sudden betrayal.

Nevertheless, Asami continued her stroll unperturbed as usual. So, what should she do now? Difficult, difficult, the situation was chaotic and she was honestly at loss.

Asami pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She was thinking, and thinking, and thinking about a solution for this absolute mess. Unfortunately, her options were limited.

Denying everything and blaming someone else for this disaster wouldn't work. Albeit the number of real and surviving witnesses was few, the circumstantial evidence was way too strong and the chances of her being court martialed within the next days were considerable unless they were complete idiots. And she didn't have t be a genius to guess what expected her. She knew the price of one Konoha shinobi. So, what was the price of a few hundred?

And the other option was making herself very, very rare in a very, very short amount of time with a lot of baggage. The best plan was to head home and barricade herself there until the tactical was more favourable for what she was intending to do in the cover of night. Nobody would miss her if she just disappeared, which was kind of sad. And Asami was hungry,tired, sleepy and primarily demotivated, not to say slightly depressed. Today was once again a horrible day and she could really need a bed, a hot shower and a few sweets to lift her rapidly falling mood. She wanted chocolate, lots of chocolate, and even that wouldn't solve anything.

A certain girl wandered aimlessly across the giant field of rubble and after a few minutes finally arrived at the end of the blast radius and final lovely hill of stone and bricks blocking her way. Asami sighed. Perhaps she had used a bit too much Chakra in her attack, but that was irrelevant by now.

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Asami crossed the little mountain with a small sense of success that was quickly evaporated by what she saw next. This was really not her day and heaven truly smiled upon her. Her disappointments just didn't end. Instead, they kept piling up and piling up, and there was only so much her tender heart could bear before breaking.

The moment she reached the peak, she was greeted by a lot of shiny swords, kunai and scared shinobi. Hundreds upon hundreds were waiting in front of her, which was slightly surprising. ANBU, Genin, Chunin and Jonin, they were all present. They had expected her and judging by their sweating faces they were prepared to fight, or rather they were prepared to die. Her eyes swept through their rank and Asami ultimately spotted a familiar figure among the crowd. An old frail man was standing At the end of the column and he was probably the mastermind behind this entire farce. He had planned this, he had expected her, hadn't he?

Asami tilted her head and smirked, "Oh, my, Danzo, why do honour me with your undesired and unwelcome presence? And why do you bring so many friends with you, Danzo? Are you searching for someone, or what?"

Danzo clenched his cane," Yes, for you."

Asami touched her chest," Fufufu, for me? I feel touched, Danzo. I knew that I am an very important person, but I didn't think that I am so important that you need to dispatch a little army only for me."

"Nevertheless, I am a little bit disappointed", Asami shook her head and sighed," Perhaps your advanced age has clouded your mind and judgement, Danzo, but don't you see that the village is currently under attack. Don't you think that you and your friends are much more needed somewhere else rather than fooling around. Instead of wasting my precious time with your senility, a certain esteemed village elder could finally make himself once useful and fight a real enemy, and not imaginary ones."

Danzo clenched his cane more and more, but he remained calm. This girl, she was toying with him. She didn't take him even remotely seriously. All she did was looking down on him from above and he could feel her lingering eyes judged him and they considered him unworthy of her attention.

Danzo narrowed his eyes," You should know your place, girl."

Asami laughed and smirked provokingly. Her eyes glimmered dangerously," Really? Of all the people on this world the great backstabbing Danzo tells me to know my place, isn't that ridiculous? No, no, you are vastly overestimating yourself and your capabilities. Instead, you should heed your own advice and reflect on the exact meaning of knowing your place, Danzo. Because you are the one who is mistaken here."

"And now get out of my sight, Danzo , run as always", the little princess inspected her polished nails and ignored him," My time is precious and I normally don't bother with small fries like you. Nevertheless, you can try if you want."

Danzo ground his teeth. The girl was taunting him and it worked incredibly well. This arrogance, this confidence, this pride, this haughtiness, he really wanted to annihilate her together with the entire fucking Uchiha clan, which was way easier said than done. He used Itachi, he allied himself with Madara, he eradicated the whole clan. He thought that he had just to deal with Itachi's little brother. But instead, this cursed clan still had one last surprise for him and they were getting on his nerves even from their graves. Because they left behind a girl, an stupidly powerful girl.

Not only did she escape the massacre unscathed and undetected for years, but she was also making his life extremely difficult by being the most powerful Uchiha in existence since Madara. It was nearly as if fate itself took some kind of last revenge on him and the Uchiha clan was spiting right into his face from their graves.

Danzo stared at her and Asami didn't flinch. She reciprocated his gaze and both of them were waiting for the spark. He had seen enough and he had enough of her. Danzo hit the ground with his cane and called for attention," Kill her, kill the traitor."

But the surrounding shinobi and even his Root ANBU hesitated. They briefly faltered and Asami noticed that with a certain sense of satisfaction. They were wavering, they were frightened, and it didn't take much fantasy to guess who or what caused this phenomenon.

Danzo clicked his tongue," I said ..."

" I don't think that you have to repeat yourself. In fact, they understood exactly what you said, Danzo", Asami interrupted him with a soft amused giggle," But what is more interesting, did you say traitor?" He had made a mistake, a drastic mistake.

A lovely saccharine smile decorated Asami's face and a purple sphere grew in her hand," I knew it. So, you are indeed a part of them. So, you are behind this entire operation, aren't you, Danzo?"

Asami laughed and her sphere swelled," **You** , Danzo **,** are the one who gave the word. **You** are the one responsible, **you** are the man behind it all, and **you** are going to face judgement. I will vanquish your existence. And to be honest, I was always curious how the great Danzo would die, but I didn't think that this fateful day would come this soon." Danzo sensed her Chakra and interiorly he began to sweat.

" Attack, attack, you idiots", Danzo commanded and this time they followed. His Root ANBU used their Katon and engulfed the girl with fire. Sadly, it was useless as the fire didn't come even close. An explosion ruined their day and dwarfed their Ninjutsu with apparent ease. The approaching flames were dispersed by her detonation and Asami laughed while her purple present kept growing in diametre," I see. I always suspected that you are a coward deep down in your heart, Danzo, but your cowardice and lack of honour surprises me. In the end, you don't t even have the courage to face me in person."

Asami revealed her shining red eyes and Danzo felt the strangulating aura of her Sharingan," Instead, you are hiding. You are hiding your shinobi and ANBU, you are hiding behind meaningless numbers, but they won't save you, Danzo. So, tell me are you scared? Do finally realise that you are doomed."

Danzo threw his cane away and charged in. He tried his luck with his Futon and a sharp vacuum bullet cut through the air. But his attack was easily intercepted by a defensive explosion and nullified by the blast. Danzo tried again, and again. Nevertheless, the result didn't change significantly. His Futon didn't get past her reactive defence and what remained just bounced of her shield.

" That is everything? You disappoint me, Danzo", Asami chuckled. Her expanding sphere contracted and she produced a small orb of purple destruction in her tiny hands. Asami extended her arm and her sphere floated along accompanying its creator and master," There are only two kind of people that fight me, Danzo, brave people who know that they will die, and fools who actually think that they can actually win. Personally, I am wondering whether you are part of the former or the latter category. So, let's see if you survive this."

The sphere cracked and Asami got what she wished for, the ideal weapon to remove this road block. The entire explosive energy was directed into a single direction and she produced a real conical shaped charge with the power of her eyes. She had just to contain the energy for a short time and that wasn't really a challenge for a master of Chakra manipulation like her. Especially, when the results were ... promising.

The sphere was released and blast punched a hole through her obstacle, or at least she assumed so. Because her sight was rather limited and everything she was just a blinding wall of pure shining white. Eventually, the light dissipated and Asami delighted by the astounding success.

The blast had ripped up the ground and carved it way right through a series of buildings that were now mere firewood. She had now a long straight line of freshly created free building space in the middle of the village, oops. Well, perhaps this was a bit too much Chakra. But a little collateral damage was acceptable as long as it didn't threaten her own property, right? After all, explosives are something very dangerous and should only be handled by a person with a heightened sense of responsibility and high morale standards, like her.

Asami observed her atomised wasteland of nothingness and was satisfied. As far as she could see, she had got them all without exception ...

Asami blinked, and blinked, and rubbed her eyes in disbelieve. Danzo was standing right in front of her and he was completely unscathed while everything else was blown into oblivion. No bruise, no scratch cut, nothing. This ... was ... interesting. She didn't miss, but he survived a hit from point blank.

Asami furrowed her eyebrow," You are more persistent than I thought and that is a nice trick you have there, Danzo. I am curious, how did you do that?"

Danzo smirked," A precocious brat like you doesn't deserve an answer ..."

Her teleportation closed the distance and Asami greeted Danzo with her stabby and electrified blade. He evaded, or rather he thought he had evaded. The protruding arm of her Susanno speared him and smashed his body against the ground, and again, and again.

Asami frowned and gripped her sword," You are way too complacent, Danzo, aren't you? I have already killed you twice. But even then you still dare to challenge me. Does you impertinence know no limits?"

Asami turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Danzo. He was standing there again seemingly unperturbed by being literally ripped apart a few seconds ago. She killed him and she him dying with her own eyes. This was no illusion, this was no Genjutsu, this was reality.

Danzo chuckled and struck a nerve," Confused, aren't we?"

Asami wasn't amused," You know, you really start to get on my nerves."

Her answer was a barrage of hundreds of little spheres. Her infernal chain explosion engulfed his position and kept raging on. Obviously, it didn't end here and she concluded her spectacle with a grand finale. The last purple flash lightened up the village and her blast made boulders with the size of trucks fly like tiny little glass marbles and showered Konoha with a rain of stone. Hopefully, they all had some kind of helmet, or a protective Susanoo like her. Otherwise ... Well, being hit by a multiple ton object from above could hurt just a tiny bit.

Needless to say, her entire performance didn't achieve the desired result aside from clearing all the rubble and deepening her personal crater. Danzo was still standing and Asami got only annoyed further. She sensed his residual Chakra and she was sure that this had to be a Ninjutsu. Spatial displacement? Unlikely. Time travel? Improbable. So, what was he using? How was he cheating death time and time again?

Asami clicked her tongue and taunted him," For a second rate shinobi with meagre talent you are pretty hard to kill, Danzo. So, could you please tell me your secret? How does it feel to die over and over again without being able to scratch a little girl? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

He didn't react and remained unfazed," You think way too highly of yourself, girl."

Asami laughed and her eyes gained a dangerous glimmer," True, true, but which Uchiha doesn't? And fact is that you are losing. I don't know how you constantly manage to elude death, but ultimately I don't care. What I know is that you are using a Jutsu and what does every Jutsu use?"

Asami was surrounded by discharging lightening. Her Raito lashed out against the air and a certain girl was electrified," The question is now whether I or you will first run out of Chakra. And I am sure it won't be me who will lose this contest. I have just to kill, slaughter, slay you a few thousands times, and then we will see if you still return from the dead, because I will break you with brute force." Her lightning struck and across Konoha neither Suna, nor Oto, nor Konoha-nin could ignore the colossal purple dome of electricity branching out skywards. Especially, when it was the same spot again as before. They witnessed the purple flash and they felt the shock wave that caused the village to tremble. Something happened there, something big that made them all feel incomparably small.

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	50. Arc VII Chapter IV

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter IV**

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The bright light dissipated and Danzo could feel his whole body again after being nearly disintegrated and electrocuted by her wrathful lightning. Her attack burned his legs, his arms, his hands, his flesh like nothing and despite his Izanagi he could clearly feel the lingering phantom pain of being roasted alive and being ripped apart, an brief stinging pain of his death that seemingly transcended time and space and tried to rightfully claim him and his body. Danzo ignored this ominous sensation and looked up. He stared at his new-found nemesis, a girl, and an Uchiha no less.

He had already died four times and the number of his eyes was limited. Nevertheless, he was still living and it dawned on him that he had to end this fast because he had underestimated her. Not only was the girl ludicrously strong, she was also hitting way harder than what he had expected. Seriously, he knew what she could do, but this ... Asami was the definition of troublesome and apparently she could even give Hashirama a run for his money, which only convinced him even more. He was right, the girl had to die no matter what. In the end, any Uchiha was a threat and couldn't be trusted. Especially, if they had such power at their disposal. Like all of her ancestors, Asami was an incalculable danger to the village that had to be dealt with once for all before it was too late.

Luckily, it wasn't too late yet and he wasn't stupid enough to fight this girl without a contingency plan. He still had one last trick to offer, a certain eye and certain Jutsu that was waiting on being used since a long time.

Danzo smirked and retained his calmness," The next time you should aim more carefully and maybe you will even hit something."

Asami smiled and played with her nails," I find your lack of faith in my abilities and I personally doubt that this is a problem of accuracy. No, no, no, the crux is that you are just coming back like a cockroach, Danzo. Yes, an annoying cockroach that just doesn't want to die. Instead, you senselessly cling to your miserable live and continue to waste my precious life time."

Asami stretched out her arm and at her command a sea her spheres graced her tiny figure together with an evil grin. Her purple spheres shimmered threateningly and it didn't take much fantasy to guess the reason for her devious smile. She was preparing the next barrage and the girl was visibly enjoying what she was doing," So, do me a favour, Danzo, and stop making things complicated. I will even promise to aim carefully and perhaps not flatten the entire village. But that largely depends on the degree of your cooperation, because I have enough Chakra and primarily plenty of ammunition to spare." Two orbs were pointed right in his direction and one of them they started to glow suddenly.

Obviously, Danzo wasn't a stupid and he knew that the venerable tactical retreat, *cough* running *cough*, was sometimes the best choice. The old man run, or rather he jumped and evaded being shredded by the incoming blast. It was the same attack Asami had used before and once again a biref flash followed together with a spiral shock wave devoured everything in its path alike like a giant spear. This Jutsu was more than just dangerous, this Jutsu was designed to obliterate, to pierce even the heaviest defences.

Danzo landed on the ground and he was betrayed by his false sense of security. He wasn't safe and it wasn't over yet. Because Asami had him right there where she wanted. Nobody could escape a grinning girl with a Sharingan. The second attack came unexpected and this time her explosion was a bit different. Her blast packed a little more punch and was slightly faster, but only slightly. Really, she didn't do that much. Just a tiny tin little bit. Yes, she was innocent and she didn't cause a further giant scar in Konoha's topography.

The moment Danzo touched the ground, the old man was hit directly from point blank and he involuntarily learned how to fly. His squishy body was kicked back by the sheer momentum and crashed through walls, houses and more at a few lovely 1000 m/s.

Asami grinned. Well, that hurt, or at least she hoped that it hurt. Because seeing someone else suffer was always so ... ecstatic, so invigorating. Their pain and their dripping desperation were wonderful and never failed to make her feel alive. She loved this feeling, this was happiness, or something similar she supposed.

Armed with a smile and escorted by her company of fluffy purple Chakraballs, Asami stepped closer and inspected his bloodied disfigured corpse. The blunt force crushed him and he died quickly like a dog. His body disappeared and behind her her Asami could hear a heavily breathing Danzo. He lived on, but she had definitely scored a hit.

"Danzo, did you really think that such a cheap trick would work on me? Did you really think that you could just dodge by jumping a bit?" Asami shook her head and her dark sinister laughter surfaced again," Are you trying to insult my honour, Danzo?"

Asami was laughing maniacally and Danzo met her gaze head on. He resisted her bottomless abyss of red. He resisted the all-embracing darkness beneath her eyes. These eyes were predatory, unforgiving, inhuman and they kept staring right at him. She didn't flinch, she didn't blink and Danzo felt a very human emotion that his old body had almost forgotten, fear. He was scared by this girl, he was scared by her smile, he was scared by her eyes, because Asami wasn't human and this wasn't a fight he could hope to win.

"Why do you remain silent, Danzo, are you lost for words? Well, it doesn't matter, your actions are irrelevant for your future fate", Asami extended her arms and her spheres aligned themselves perfectly. Her children formed a wall of purple targeting the man in front of her. They were ready to crush her opposition in all out assault and they would incinerate everything. Today Konoha was her playing ground and this was a statement of her power.

"Do you finally realise how small you are, Danzo? You are a dead men one way or another. You are nothing", Asami ordered her attack with her arm and in his desperation Danzo choose the only sensible option and charged. He charged with his kunai and ignored the fact that currently he was probably facing more firepower than a fucking full-fledged Bijudama that she just shook out of nowhere. He had to close the distance, or take the following attack. Neither was particularly desirable, but he had no choice.

Unfortunately, Danzo was too slow and a smirking Asami scored her next hit. This was the 6th time and she was sure she deserved some kind of medal or ribbon for her achievement. Well, something like the Danzo destruction badge 1st class gold. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. Asami nodded while she successfully demolished a further large portion of the village. Her current attack was more based on brute force rather than finesse, but the effectiveness of levelling everything in a 180 degree radius was nevertheless undeniable, even when it apparently failed. Danzo made it, or rather he cheated his way through the focal of her array with his Jutsu. Instead of being evaporated, the old man proved to be was tragic figure that just didn't know when it was enough and she almost pitied him, but only almost.

Asami grinned evilly and resorted to her favourite side arm, her sword. This would be funny. Danzo's kunai was blocked her Susanoo and snapped, which left him vulnerable. Not wasting this opportunity, Asami counterattacked. She drove her sword through his lifeless torso. Her gleaming lighting burned brightly and speared Danzo without compassion.

Her Raiton was crackling vividly and the high voltage was slowly grilling Danzo from inside out. His whole body was petrified, paralysed by her lightning. Despite her short stature, Asami leaned closer and whispered softly. The little demon mocked him and her Sharingan looked down on him," 7, this was the 7th time. It seems you still don't comprehend the discrepancy in ability between you and me, do you? Therefore, I give you a little piece of free advice, ... close combat ... is a horrible idea. So, forget it , Danzo, you can try this when you are older."

Asami pulled out her blade and focused her eyes on the next iteration of Danzo. He was visibly panting and the Chakra drain began to gradually work. He was slowly grinded to death and her sword sensed her euphoria.

Protected by her rampant lightning, Asami tripped forward and chuckled amused. Asami accelerated and both sides collided. Her steel met his kunai and Danzo parried her slash. Danzo was pushed back and ground his teeth in pain. This amount of strength ... was ridiculous. How much Chakra was she using? She was pressing her blade closer and closer.

Danzo frowned and it didn't get any better. Her Susanoo tried to vivisect him for a second time this day. He evaded, but in exchange he got run through by a lance of heated plasma. Asami didn't miss her chance and stabbed his lung once again with this burning sensation.

Danzo flickered out of existence and Asami tilted her head," You are really pathetic, aren't you? Is this miserable performance everything you have to offer? Instead of running like coward, you should face me and die like a man."

Danzo didn't make her wait. He attacked and repeated his mistake. She had told him before, close combat was a bad idea. Especially, against a girl with a lot of nasty explosive surprises. Nevertheless, he didn't listen in his hubris. He couldn't match her speed, her skill and certainly not her power. Therefore, he would pay the price. His assault got punished by an outstretched arm and an high amount of densely concentrated Chakra right into his face. He got pulverised together with a few hectares of Konoha's best infrastructure.

Asami sensed Danzo's presence and readied her weapon. Her enemy grew increasingly tired, sluggish and careless. Apparently, resurrecting from the dead took quite a toll on Danzo.

Asami pursued her helpless prey and pierced his leg. She drove her sword further and further into the earth like a nail and pinned Danzo down to the ground. He struggled in vain while being pressed down by her heel, but Asami had got him and she smiled sweetly," Do you know what I don't understand, Danzo? Why are you even doing this? Why are you trying to kill me, Danzo? Was it really worth it?"

Asami ignited her beloved fire and incinerated her victim. She coated Danzo in purple flames and burned him very slowly to death before her eyes. He cried in pain and she could feel the haunting agony in his voice. But his martyr didn't stop and her joyous fire greedily devoured his figure. They wanted more and more and were never satisfied.

Asami shook her head," Just imagine all that could have been possible without your interference. Imagine all that Konoha could have had. Imagine all that Konoha had lost only because you tossed me aside. You didn't throw away a simple girl, you didn't throw away an insignificant Kunoichi, you didn't even throw away an Uchiha. No, you discarded me, Danzo, me, the one and only Asami. You discarded the possibility to write history. And for what? What did you hope to gain?"

Danzo burned and burned until nothing remained. Asami looked up and her innocent grin struck terror into his heart. Her sword flared up and Asami stepped forward. Danzo panicked. His Chakra was exhausted, his head was disoriented, his skin remembered the blazing heat and judging by her delighted face the girl wouldn't hesitate even a second to turn him into a living torch again. But more importantly, he had died ten times. He had run out of Sharingans and the malicious demon was still living. The girl was coming closer and she wanted only one thing, his life.

Danzo fled, but a lightning bolt blocked his path and stopped his premature escape," Where do you think you are going, Danzo? We are not finished yet, we are not finished by a long shot. We two have a lot of discuss, haven't we?" Her eye were shaded by darkness and her smile twisted.

The skeletal arm of her Susanoo protruded and grabbed him only to strangulate him. Asami increased the pressure of her grip and within her palm she created a tiny flame," So, tell me, Danzo, what should I do with you?"

Asami carried her fire forward and her intention was clear. In his desperation, Danzo played his last card, his final card. He used Shisui's eye and he prayed that it worked.

Asami stopped and her whole body trembled. She couldn't move, she was shaking and her hate-filled glare hit Danzo," What have you done?"

Asami gripped her sword and stabbed herself. Her own beloved blade pierced her pierced and killed her. Her heart bled and Asami's dripping blood turned her black kimono completely red. In the end, Konoha even tried to take her life from her. They really didn't deserve her.

Asami collapsed and her weakened body fell while Danzo was released from the grip of her Susanoo. He landed on the ground and he laughed. Danzo kept laughing and laughing. It was unbelievable. He had won, he had won, he had won. He emerged victorious and not her ...

Her body rose and Danzo's eyes grew wide. Asami grinned visibly enjoying this moment of triumph. She removed her sword and was left with a gaping hole in her chest. The girl should be dead, but instead she lived and a subdued purple shimmer filled her regenerating wound," Do you really think a such a trick would be enough? Danzo, I have beaten death before and I will also beat death this time! You need way more to kill me! The world needs more to kill me!"

Asami cried and rammed her steel with all o f her force through his right eye and this fucking Sharingan that caused her so much trouble. She split his skull apart and tasted the sweet nectar victory before breaking down. She believed she had won, but fate was cruel and robbed her of her well-earned victory. Asami was coughing blood and her breathing grew heavy, but her hilarious laughter didn't die down,"*cough* *cough*, this bastard, *cough* *cough*." Danzo's corpse disappeared and his signature too. The asshole left her. As expected, the coward was running with his tail between his legs when it got close.

Asami clenched her bloodied fists while her lungs continued coughing. Oh, how she wanted to kill him. If she ever got her hands on him, then ... Then ... Then Danzo would learn the true meaning ofthe word pain.

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Danzo wasn't exactly running, he was rather limping across the never-ending wasteland the girl had created. Supported by a stick, he carried his old broken body forward at a crawling pace. He had to get away from her quickly and no matter the cost. He got butchered, he got burned alive, he got broken like a toy, he lost his Sharingans, he sacrificed Shisui's eye, he nearly died, but that didn't matter. He survived Asami, he survived the demon in human shape and lived to tell the tale.

Danzo stumbled ahead and today he was indeed lucky. He smiled as he spotted Fu and Troune together with the rest of the backup force. He was saved.

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 **Author's note:**

Ah, Danzo, what an annoying character to fight. Seriously, this man has literally more extra lives than a cat and is the living proof of the fact that you don't need to be necessarily skilled. You just need to be lucky, and have a lot of Sharingans. Because never forget, magic red eyeballs are the solution for everything, aside from Hashirama cells obviously.

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	51. Arc VII Chapter V

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter** **V**

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Equipped with a pair of glasses, Sosuke observed a certain ominous building from distance and he was slightly annoyed by what he saw, or rather by what he didn't see. The mansion was undoubtedly massive for being located in the middle of the now heavily destroyed village and had a lovely garden. And somehow the villa miraculously survived what happened this afternoon, which was a real enigma. While the surrounding streets were more or less flattened , her little palace remained completely intact and was mysteriously sparred. All of the blasts had perfectly missed the villa as if they were choreographed and he couldn't even spot a single fucking pebble lying there.

Seriously, how was that possible? Sosuke was pissed off and continued grumbling angrily. He lost he his newly-bought apartment and his entire savings thanks to this invasion aside from still having to pay back his real estate loans, wonderful. But a gigantic palace with more bathrooms than his old apartment had windows wasn't even scratched by the explosions. Sosuke sighed and learned once again that fate was a cruel. Apparently, a little rich princess kept getting richer and richer, while the poor average Chunin like him were struck by misfortune and kept getting poorer and poorer despite working their ass off. Life wasn't particularly fair, was it?

But that wasn't the main problem. What worried Sosuke more was the fact that staring at this mansion gave him a very uncomfortable feeling. No matter what he did, just a few seconds were enough and he got this nagging uncanny feeling in his mind. These black walls, the black wood, the black marble seemed to haunt him from afar as if cursed by a malevolent spirit.

And it didn't help at all that the night covered the Konoha in darkness only to illuminated by a few lonely street lamps with their malfunctioning flickering light. He could literally hear their monotonous *bzzz*, *bzzz*, *bzzz* and he didn't trust their eerie aura. Sosuku gulped. Something was definitely wrong here. And that is was the right choice to send Shiba and Fumimaro to investigate the other observation posts. Because he was certainly the only one with the sensation that something ancient was watching dangerous was lurking in the darkness and it was waiting for them.

In general, this mission was one strangest and primarily unconventional assignments he had ever been given. Together with a few other Chunin teams, he was tasked with providing overwatch and report anything " suspicious" without even having the slightest idea of what is going on. They knew neither what they were exactly doing here and what was expected from them. But what they knew was that this was some kind of secret mission, that the order came apparently directly form the village council, and that a full platoon of ANBU was something inside the mansion while they were playing guard outside. Quite frankly,they were completely clueless about what was going on. They only information they got was " watch out for a black haired girl with a sword" and " you will know her when you see her". What kind of description is that supposed to be?

Apparently, they were dispatched to search for little girls in black kimonos and it didn't take a genius to notice that this entire story sounded fishy. ANBU, a girl, a village council and mysterious orders, this was way more than a bit suspicious, not to say alarming. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything. He was just a little gear in the big schemes of things.

Sosuke sighed and a nearby old friend noticed his troubled expression," Sosuke, is something?"

"No, no, no, nothing, nothing, Tatsuya", Sosuke deflected and continued observing the mansion.

" And why do I not believe you? Sosuke, I know you long enough to tell when something is wrong", Tatsuya tried his best, but he couldn't hide it. His eyes were still empty, soulless, and full of sadness. Something had died inside him and it wasn't difficult to guess why. He was only a Genin, but Tatsuya's little bother and his team received nevertheless a mobilisation order last week, and it seems that their unit was deployed close to ground zero before it happened. He never returned, nobody returned.

Sosuke gave up his resistance and sighed," Well, I am just wondering why we are here?"

"I see", Tatsuya nodded understandingly and stared at the ground again,"If you want, then I can tell you the answer."

Sosuke furrowed his doubting eyebrow," Really? And why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

Tatsuya smiled weakly," You never asked and I thought you already knew."

"Right", Sosuke conceded," So, what I am exactly supposed to know?"

"Do you know what happened today?"

...

...

...

Sosuke took a breath before he broke the uncomfortable silence," Tatsuya, I think that I saw enough of what happened and I doubt that that I need a reminder. "

He saw the creature that demolished half of Konoha's suburbs. He saw the fireball that engulfed the sky. Everyone saw how entire companies perished forever in a blink of an eye. Everyone saw how whole squads were devoured by the demonic purple flames right before their eyes. Konoha's losses were staggering and the number still kept climbing and climbing only to mock them. Thousands upon thousands, friends, foes or civilians alike vanished in a single day without a trace.

"We all know that the price we paid today for victory was high and that we all paid the price in blood. Especially you, Tatsuya."

...

...

...

"You are right", Tatsuya didn't say anything for a while," But do you know who caused all this?"

Did he know more than he did? Kosuke hesitated," No."

" I thought so", Tatsuya answered with a strained smile.

Kosuke focused back on his trusted pair of binoculars," And who is then responsible for this catastrophe?"

"A little girl apparently, a Kunoichi and she was one of us", Tatsuya laughed uneasily and he wasn't the only one who felt the same.

Kosuke fell silent. Someone from Konoha did all this, he couldn't believe it.

"And where did you get that from, Tatsuya?"

"From a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend ..."

Kosuke interrupted him," So, rumours basically?"

"Yes, there are various rumours floating around in the village, and from what i can tell they even seem to originate from a source within the ANBU." Not surprising considering that a little girl has bulldozed half of Konoha in a single day.

Kosuke was curious now," And what do they say?"

"Some say that the girl is a traitor that only waited for the day to slaughter all of us. Some say that she had gone completely insane. Some say that the girl is in truth an evil demon that feasts on our souls. Some say that Danzo apparently fought her and saved us from a even bigger calamity. Other say that she was always a crazed psychopath from the beginning and just wanted to see the village burn. Or even that the girl is the real Jinchuriki of the Kyubi and she only continued where the fox failed years ago."

Kosuke processed this new information, "And what is the truth?"

Tatsuya was unsure," Difficult to say, but fact is that they all of these rumours point into her direction. It was her, that is sure."

" And who exactly is "her" ?", Kosuke felt a shiver running down his spine. He had a suspicion.

Tatsuya gave him a blank stare," Kosuke, I think we both know that there is a only single Kunoichi in the entire village who could pull this off. There is a reason that the ANBU call her their little princess."

Princess, princess, princess, ... " And what has that to do with this mission ...", Kosuke froze and his eyes widened. It was her.

Kosuke murmured," Our target is her, right?"

Tatsuya nodded in silence " Yes, probably. The girl shares a lot of similarities and the description fits her perfectly."

Kosuke ground his teeth. He knew it, he knew it, he knew it, this entire operation didn't just smell fishy. The entire operation was fishy.

Kosuke stood up," Tatsuya, we are going."

"Why that?"

"We are going to search for Shiba and Fumimaro and then we get out of here ..."

"Oh my, I don't think that this is necessary. I have already found them together with the rest of your friends. You know, spying on a maiden isn't particularly nice ", a giggling voice interrupted them and they slowly turned their heads. Kosuke's blood froze. He stared into the cold darkness and there he met two crimson eyes and a sparkling blade. Her eyes smiled and her purple lightning danced in joy.

They ... were ... done. And he was right. The girl rammed her sword through abdomen and Kosuke felt how his life was slowly drained.

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"Captain. Captain."

Konosuke was wandering around until he was interrupted by an energetic ANBU. You see, this happened when the new recruits were growing younger and younger, they were annoying as hellas they were far too eager to prove themselves. As a consequence, they generally tended to get on your nerves. But what should you expect? They were still newbies and most of them were only promoted recently. After all, experienced ANB didn't fall from the sky. They had all started once as bloody amateurs. Unless, you had a pair of magic eyeballs, were a genius like Kakashi or a certain irresponsible girl with way too much power for her own good. It didn't surprise him what happened and it didn't surprise what they were doing now. But nevertheless, he knew Asami and it was sad that everything had to end this way.

Konosuke turned his head and smiled behind his mask," Ah, Mitsuhide, what is? Have you found anything?" They were currently checking the mansion, but their search didn't yield any results as expected. In general, the entirety of the ANBU and a good amount of Jonin was busy with searching for a simple girl because the village council ordered them so. Nevertheless, not only did they fail to catch her, they couldn't even find a single trace of her. It was as if Asami had just vanished into thin air. He swore he could literally hear her laughing in the background and mocking them for their incompetence.

Mitsuhide scratched his head," Well, we tried, Captain. My squad and I turned everything upside down, but we found neither her nor anything useful. The only thing we found were swords, swords and even more swords. Apparently, the girl really likes swords."

Konosuke furrowed an eyebrow and smiled uneasily," Really? She likes swords? I think that is very well-known. In fact, I suspect that every single ANBU in Konoha is well-aware of her love for stabby objects."

Mitsuhide looked confused," Ehm, Captain, are you sure that we are talking the same person?"

Konosuke realised," Ah, yes, I forgot, you are new here, aren't you?"

"And what is that supposed to mean, Captain?"

"No, no, nothing, forget it", Konosuke smiled and continued his walk. Mitsuhide didn't need to know that the girl was a former ANBU. And he certainly didn't need to know the girl could and would rip them all apart with her bare hands. That wasn't good for morale ...

*knock*, *knock*, *knock*.

Konosuke stopped and stared at the door.

*knock*, *knock*, *knock*.

Someone was knocking. But why at this time? And why in the middle of the night? This ... was ... strange, and he wasn't the only one who thought so.

*knock*, *knock*, *knock*.

"Heiji, Thoki, Kasumi, Asuka, go and open the door", Konosuke ordered and they obeyed. The four ANBU approached the door and one of them grabbed the knob only to be rewarded with a startling light.

The explosion ripped through the door and the ANBU. They were blown apart and Konosuke was showered by tiny little pieces of roasted flesh and body parts.

The door was open and a certain girl paid them a visit. Her figure was accompanied by the pale white moonlight that revealed her terrifying grin in the shadows," You know, I am always surprised how well this old trick works. People seem never to learn, tsk, tsk, tsk."

Asami smiled and stepped in while Konosuke had a single thought," Fuck."

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" Danzo-sama,we have failed. The girl has escaped ", a Root ANBU kneeled and reported.

Danzo waited and waited before finally turning his attention to this new piece of information. He was weakened by what he had experienced yesterday and he therefore took his time. His Chakra was weak and his hands were shaking, not to mention the state of his right arm. His Hashirama cells were flaring up since the battle with her and it was getting worse and worse. Nevertheless, he couldn't rest yet as Konoha needed him in these dire times, " So, she is still alive?"

The Root ANBU," Yes, Danzo-sama. We suspect so because we have found nothing that suggests otherwise. We haven't found a corpse and her death couldn't be confirmed. In general, it seems more like she has just disappeared . But that wasn't the case."

Danzo was interested," What you do mean?"

The Root ANBU clarified," Apparently, a lot of patrols have gone missing last night and never returned. As far as we can tell, they were all stabbed by something sharp, garrotted from behind or charred in various way by lightening or fire. But what is sure is that someone targeted and hunted them systematically. And the deployed ANBU platoon met a similar fate."

Danzo was slightly nervous. He had underestimated Asami and he had never imagined that this girl would turn into such a massive ... problem," Does the village council already know?"

" Yes, they were already informed a few hours ago. A squad of Chunin investigated the mansion and stumbled across the ANBU this morning."

"What did they say?"

"The Captain reported that he hadn't seen such a degree of brutality even in the later stages of the last shinobi war. This wasn't a fight, this was massacre and something slaughtered these ANBU like sheep."

Wasn't this perfect? Danzo grinned and opened a drawer with two specific documents. It was time to act," I want her data to be added to the Bingo book as quickly as possible. And arrange that the second copy will be distributed to every known bounty hunter on this planet. We need her dead no matter the price. "

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Today wasn't a good day. Absolutely, not a good day. Not only did he run out on missions, but also the request in recent weeks were all terrible without exception. The bounties were either meager, not to say insignificant, or the request an blatant insult to his abilities. He loved money above all else, but he wasn't someone to travel across half the continent to get rid of some small fries. His time was precious and the bounty market experienced apparently difficult times.

Kakuzu sighed while going through the newest wanted posters. Until his hands suddenly stopped and he stared a certain picture. He had seen this picture before, he had seen this name before, he had seen girl before. But the price tag had changed and the classification too. Suddenly, the girl wasn't a simple Genin anymore. And suddenly, the little girl had even gained a S-rank, a notorious title and a respectable sum of 300,000,000.00 ryo.

Kakuzu smiled and shouted," Hidan, you asshole, get the fuck down here, we have got a job to do."

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	52. Arc VII Chapter VI

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter** **VI**

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Asami suffered from a strange mixture of desperation, apathy, depression and overall lack of motivation. Not only was she hungry, but also tired. Hungry, tired, hungry, tired, but primarily hungry. A few weeks had already passed since she had stated her little involuntary adventure. She had crossed rivers, forests, mountains, countries and the conclusion was clear,travelling and living in the wildness sucked.

Her feet were hurting. Her clothes were getting dirty no matter what. Stupid stinging insects everywhere. Thankfully, she could roast them with her lighting. She was always hungry and for some reason low on food, and sweets. Especially, sweets and sugar. The nights were colder than she had expected. Stupid nature, stupid climate. There was no shower and bath tube. In short, Asami was slightly annoyed and she really missed her fluffy bed, her pyjama, her warm home and other luxurious amenities. She missed her old comfortable life, because this was not a lifestyle that befitted her standing. She was a princess and the last female member of an ancient clan descending from a goddess. She definitely deserved more than this, didn't she?

And to make things worse, she was constantly getting attacked by various people trying to kill her. For some reason, a strange assembly of shinobi, ANBU, mercenaries and whatever else appeared to specifically search for her. Mysterious. They were persistent like flies and their numbers kept increasing steadily until she decided to nail a few of them to the nearest tree. And surprisingly, her admirers suddenly stopped bothering her after all this time. In hindsight, she should have killed them from the beginning. That would have been the best decision.

Asami continued marching while grumbling angrily, which was the main reason that she slipped and tripped over the root of a random tree together with her inherent carelessness. To be honest, she didn't particularly care anymore and wasn't interested in stopping her fall. After all, what could happen anyway?

She had survived that fateful night, she had survived Itachi, she had a stab through her heart, and she had survived a few amateurish ANBU. She had persisted despite all of this and kept going and going only a few steps away from real immortality. So, what could a simple measly root do? Kill her? Aside from that, the soft grass below her appeared so wonderfully comfortable, as if the fluffy green was inviting her like a huge lovely pillow. Her body was tired and she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. Because she couldn't anymore and she wanted to rest for only a few moments, even when it was just lying on a tiny patch of grass in some nameless forest in some nameless country. What she needed now was a few minutes of solitude, peace and silence.

Asami fell and her landing was harsher than she had initially expected. The grass had betrayed her expectations and was neither fluffy nor soft. Instead, the ground was hard like stone, but that didn't matter. She had earned this and Asami enjoyed every single moment with a smile while staring at the dark grey sky. The looming clouds covered the entire horizon in a threatening black and nature seconded her opinion.

Asami sighed under passing clouds. She was lying down here on the ground and she felt a little bit down to be heart didn't stop bleeding, but nobody cared. Her heart cried inside, but nobody cared. No, she was alone.

The clouds roared and a thunder announced what followed next. Asami could feel the small falling droplets of water on her skin and she could feel how their numbers slowly increased. It was raining. Asami smiled. She really liked rain and the rain liked her.

Her world wasn't a sunny and happy place. Instead, her past and her present life were miserable and her future was shrouded in darkness. Her future was uncertain and her path unclear. What should she do from now on? Well, she had no plan. What she knew, however, was that fate was a cruel master and not kind to her. She had lost everything, paid with everything, and nothing remained to her. Nothing but bitter disappointment and a sense of being wronged. Nothing but resentment and a tiny burning flame of hatred. Because one day she would repay their kindness, that was sure. But that was irrelevant for now. Konoha was a thing of the past and she didn't regret it in the slightest. What she regretted, however, was all the time and energy she dumped there without a return. What an unfortunate waste.

The rain didn't stop and kept pouring down on her. The myriads of droplets kept falling and her hair, her fresh black kimono, her entire body were soaked wet by water. But the rain didn't bother her. Instead, Asami grinned amid this endless stream of tears and extended her hand skywards. After all, what was a bit of rain? What was a bit of sadness? What was a bit of pain? What was a bit of suffering?

Asami laughed. Because in the end, she would always get what she desired. She would rise again and claim what was hers, hers alone. And this time nobody would deny her what was her birthright. But for now she was just lying here and enjoying the refreshing cold rain trickling from her skin. Yes, she certainly liked rain.

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"Kakuzu."

"Kakuzu."

"Kakuzu!"

"Yes, what is?" Kakuzu ground his teeth and gave Hidan an angry stare. He was a very lucky immortal bastard and he regretted that he couldn't just kill him.

"Kakuzu, do you really think that it is worth what we are doing here? We are alreadysearching an entire month for this fucking bitch and we have not even a single fucking clue where she is! Don't you see that is a waste of time?!" Hidan was visibly annoyed but his partner ignored him as usual.

Kakuzu chuckled," Waste of time? Do you realise how much this bitch is worth, Hidan? I can tell you that, more than what I have earned in recent years put together. The girl is worth her weight in gold, so shut up and stop complaining."

Hidan clicked his tongue, "But still, we have no idea. And it doesn't matter how much she is worth in gold or whatever if we can't find her, Kakuzu! Don't you get that?!"

Kakuzu corrected his partner with a grin," Hidan, that is not true, you can't find her and you don't know where she is."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Hidan ground his teeth.

What I mean is that you as usual have no idea and that I am doing as usual the majority of the work. I have a network, I have connections, I have the intel, and I know that she can't be far. She has to be somewhere nearby."

"Oh, somewhere nearby? Yes, I remember how well that worked out for us last week, and the week before, and ..." Hidan grew silent as they both reached a crossroad and made an unexpected find.

"See, didn't I tell you that we are on good way?" Kakuzu laughed and approached them. Apparently, they weren't the only ones following her trace. And apparently, they had found her before them and it didn't turn out too well for them despite their numbers. Based on their masks, they were Kiri-ANBU supplemented by a few mercenaries.

Kakuzu furrowed an eyebrow. How many enemies did this girl have? Seriously, what did she do? Kiri, Iwa, Suna, Kumo, Konoha, it seemed that almost everyone wanted her dead for some reason. And what was even stranger, the girl didn't care. Finding a high-ranking Kunoichi on the run was normally a hassle, but not in this case. She didn't hide, she didn't run, she didn't try to escape. No, it was if she was waiting for you. In fact, you had just to look out for a scary girl in black with a sword and the trail of blood she left behind, then you couldn't miss her.

Kakuzu leaned down and inspected the nearest body. A stab wound right though his chest. Something sharp and with high speed speared the man and burned a gaping hole into his torso. The fragrance of human flesh was omnipresent and Kakuzu knew that this had to be her handiwork. This degree of precision, this clean cuts, and this kind of very characteristic burns, he had seen them in the past weeks. It was her. It was undoubtedly her who massacred them, chopped them and burned them. But more importantly, some of the blood was still fresh, which meant ...

Kakuzu focused his eyes on a small town down in the valley," I think we have found her. So, do you still think that this is mission is a failure, Hidan?"

"Hidan?" Kakuzu looked for his companion and found him staring at a single corpse leaning against a blood-smeared tree. It was a man and his heart was pierced by her sword. But what was so important about him?

Hidan's hands were shaking before he finally exploded," This fucking little bitch, who does she think she is?! Not once, not twice, not thrice, this is the fourth time she is beating my quota! I am the servant of Jashin here and not her! Massacring people is my job, my job alone, goddammit!"

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* * *

Asami was rubbing her chin pensively and narrowed her eyes at her newest enemy, a very difficult enemy and an opponent worthy of her attention. Which ice cream flavour should she choose? There were so many of them and she couldn't make a decision. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, orange, banana, cherry, pistachio, ... Hmm, what should she take? Difficult, difficult, at the moment it was a close call between the classical vanilla and pistachio, but even that wasn't entirely sure yet.

" Ahem."

" Ahem."

" Ahem!"

Asami looked up and viewed the slightly impatient shopkeeper," Yes?"

The man smiled uneasily," I don't want to disturb you, but could you please hurry up a bit. I still have a few other customers and you are holding up the buisness."

Asami tilted her head curiously," Really?"

" Yes."

Asami turned her head and was surprised by a very, very long line of people behind her," I see." Whatever, there were more important issues. Vanilla, or pistachio. Vanilla, or pistachio.

The man grew angry "Hey, didn't you hear what I said. Do you want that I ..."

Asami interrupted him," My friend, I heard and understood what you said. But you should keep in mind that selecting the right flavour of ice cream is a delicate affair and matter of great importance."

Asami glared at him and she could feel the terror in his eyes," You can feel yourself hounored that I grace this establishment with my presence. So, want do you exactly want to do with me?"

This man never met a Sharingan before and he was right to fear her beautiful red eyes. Asami smiled and made her final choice," A cone pistachio please."

In the end, a happy girl got her ice cream and she didn't even have to pay. The quality of the ice wasn't the best and the texture improvable, but it was acceptable considering the circumstances. Today was definitely a good day, or at least one of the better days in her recent memory. In dark times like these, you had to enjoy the small luxuries of life, right? Asami savoured her cone and left the shop with a broad smile.

Unfortunately, her way was blocked by a string of threads that only almost succeeded in killing her. The threads missed her head narrowly, but they got something else instead. They decapitated her ice without mercy and that wasn't fair. She had worked so hard and even terrorised the local ice cream shop, and then this.

A slightly saddened Asami mourned her loss. Her ice. "Kakuzu, are you sure that she is the right one?"

The man clicked his tongue and retracted his threads,"100% sure, Hidan."

Asami looked at the ones responsible for this grave injustice and narrowed her eyes. She recognized these coats. She recognized the pattern after all this time. And her mood wasn't the best," And who are you please?"

Hidan grabbed his scythe," We? We? I will kill you fucking bitch ..."

Kakuzu grabbed Hidan because his sensed the danger, or rather he sensed the absurd amounts of Chakra in the air and contrary to his partner he noticed that a few angry spheres of Chakra were pointing into his direction. Therefore, he did what Kakuzu, he used Hidan as a blast shield, an reliable immortal blast shield. And it was a very good idea as he quickly found out.

The girl hit harder than Deidara and his bones seconded his opinion that her S-rank was well-deserved indeed. The girl was dangerous, not to say deadly. She cleaved a giant corridor through the town and his body crashed through more walls and wood than he could count, but he was still in one piece as someone else had generously volunteered to take the brunt of her assault. But still, it hurt and he would like to avoid such an unpleasant experience like this in future. And for the being it was perhaps recommendable to lie low and keep observing.

"*cough*, *cough*. What the fuck was that supposed to be, Kakuzu? Did you want to kill me, or what? *cough*, *cough*", Hidan rose from the ground. His coat was shredded and he obviously didn't approve of being used a living cover.

"Hey, you asshole, I am talking with you, Kakuzu!" his partner didn't appear to move and Hidan grew increasingly furious. That bastard!

Hidan kicked his colleague a few times more, but no reaction. Kakuzu was deader than dead and Hidan annoyed by his stupid charade," Kakuzu, don't think that you can get away with ..."

"Think what?" Hidan was surprised a sweet threatening voice behind him.

A girl grinned and pressed a purple sphere with a tiny bit of her Chakra against his chest," I hope it will hurt a lot, because this is for my ice. So, bye bye."

Asami smiled while her newest victim was bouncing over the ground like a human projectile. Ouch, that definitely hurt, didn't it?

"Aargh, you fucking bitch ..."

"My friend, you should have learned some manners. Because sometimes they are surprisingly useful", Asami's sword finished his sentence and a now beheaded Hidan.

Asami smirked and looked down at the rolling head," What a bunch of amateurs." And she had thought that this was going to be a more ... interesting fight. But instead ...

"Hey, don't believe that you have won. This isn't over yet!"

Asami looked around and was confused. ?

"No, no, no, down here! I am here!"

Asami looked down and blinked. She rubbed her tired eyes. Was she hallucinating? A talking head?

"Why are you staring ..."

Asami grabbed and inspected the funny talking head. The head was real and it didn't seem a product of her imagination," Curious."

"Mrmrmrmrm, stop, mrmrrmrmr, doing, mrmrrmrrm, this, or I will ..."

Asami pinched his cheeks and grinned" Or what? What is a head going to do? Kill me, or what? No, no, but I can tell you what will happen to you."

The girl created a lovely flame in her hand and the purple fire was coming steadily coming closer.

Hidan laughed," Hahaha, don't you know, I am immortal! Try it if you can!"

Asami chuckled and dangerous glimmer appeared in her eyes," Immortal? I have already fought one of this "immortal" types before. Should I tell how it ended?"

Asami leaned closer and whispered," He was running with his tail between his legs like the coward he was. And now let's have a bit of fun and see how long a talking head can burn, right?"

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It was over. Kakuzu stood up again and dusted off his damaged coat. He had severely underestimated the little princess and faced the consequences. Fortunately, playing dead worked better than expected and was a smart decision. Because he might be immortal, but he wasn't stupid.

Kakuzu strolled around in search of his partner. He quickly found his charred head that was spiked on some kind of broken pipe. His friend had definitely seen better days and he suffered a few minor burns.

Kakuzu laughed and picked up the head while looking for his body," Hidan, what happened?"

"Kakuzu."

"Kakuzu, I met an angel, I met a goddess."

Kakuzu furrowed his eyebrow. Had Hidan finally gone insane," Are you sure?"

"Kakuzu, I think I have have fallen in love ... mmmmmmmmmm."

"Mmmmmmmmmmm."

"Mmmmmmmmmmm."

Kakuzu sealed his lips with his threads and silenced Hidan," Better, way better."

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	53. Arc VII Chapter VII

**VII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter** **VII**

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It was a dark place, a cold place, a lonely place, an inhospitable place in the middle of nowhere populated by nothing more than a variety of spiders and bugs that lurked in the eternal darkness of this cave. It was hardly surprising that some people might rightfully wonder whether this place had ever seen even the trace of a single human soul in its thousand upon thousand years of existence. And indeed, in the majority of cases the answer would be a clear and simple no.

But not in this case, because this cave was a special cave And more importantly, a certain group of internationally wanted criminals with a strange and uncanny preference for dark caves and other subterranean structures in general as their favourite official meeting points had occupied this place and made it one of their secret bases. No, they couldn't choose a more open and easily accessible location. Instead, they had opted for an inhabitable hole that couldn't be reached even by a tiny ray of light. But that was largely irrelevant as the various Akatsuki members rarely met physically, not to say never, and they relied mostly on their typical hologram-based form of communication. And that also applied to their weekly meetings.

Nagato scanned the room and verified whether everyone was present. Despite Akatsuki's relatively loose and flexible structure, a certain degree of organisation, discipline and primarily control was nevertheless necessary and had to maintained, unfortunately. As a consequence, he felt that he increasingly became less Pain-sama and more and more manager-sama. As Konan had repeatedly pointed out, communication was crucial, or something similar.

Because a few of his subordinates had a few problematic traits and had to be constantly checked. Otherwise, they were guaranteed to do something stupid. After all, Akatsui was officially still a mercenary group and they somehow had to earn money too. Ergo, having a reputation of entirely consisting of immortal zombies, a psychopathic killer, a pyromaniac fanatic, and a creepy puppeteer wasn't really helpful.

A bit of a creepy and mystic flair was helpful, but too much wasn't good for business. Hidan, how many people have you sacrificed again? Deidara, have you again blown something up just for fun? Sasori, stop turning people into your puppets without my knowledge! Itachi ... Well, just continue doing whatever you are currently doing. Seriously, who was going to hire them under these circumstances? Nobody. The Akatsuki could need a more human face, or someone with a more human face.

"So, let's start with the meeting today. We have a lot to do", a holographic Nagato initiated the discussion while Deidara gave him a questioning look.

Nagato was slightly bored, "Yes, Deidara. What is?"

"Pain-sama, I don't want to question your wisdom, but shouldn't we wait for our zombie duo?"

Nagato corrected him," That isn't necessary, Deidara, as they will come soon. Kakuzu has informed me that they have encountered a slight complication during their recent mission. Hidan has gone insane for some reason and Kakuzu has to keep him in check."

Deidara furrowed his eyebrow," Insane?"

They all knew that it would happen some day, but it was nevertheless ... surprising. His bet was that Hidan had still a few years left.

Nagato explained," Yes, he wants to build a shrine and sacrifice a few thousand people."

"What?" Deidara gave him an incredulous stare and he wasn't the only one.

Sasori murmured," Why that?"

"Hidan has apparently found his true love. He plans to ask Jashin to grant him a wish and help him to conquer the pure heart of a beautiful angel in black. Luckily, Kakuzu has restraint him successfully before he could do anything stupid", Nagato didn't believe it initially, but it was true. Love was a strange and potent emotion. Especially, in Hidan's case. Hopefully, he would stop soon with these stupidities. Otherwise, his infatuation could become rather troublesome for all of them.

"Apropos love and strange fetishes, have you two also done anything without informing me?" Nagato narrowed his eyes," Deidara, have you blown something up in recent times?"

He laughed," No, no, nothing."

"Really? No, bridge? No, building? No, explosions?"

"Yes, I swear. I didn't do anything."

Nagato remained suspicious," Sure. And you, Sasori, did you produce some of your favourite puppets?"

Sasore grumbled," No, not this week. Good supply and stock is difficult to find."

"I see", Nagato crossed a few points on his mental checklist. Deidara. Okay. Sasori. Okay, probably. Itachi, Kisame. Okay as always. The only one missing was now ...

"Sorry for being late, I had a certain problem to fix", Kakuzu eventually appeared.

"So, you are finally here?" Nagato turned his head," That is good, because I have a lot of questions. We have a lot of questions. I am interested, what caused this situation?"

Kakuzu waited for a few seconds," I am not sure, but something happened while we were fighting her."

"And why were you fighting this girl?" Nagato furrowed his eyebrow. That was new, because Kakuzu didn't mention any fighting in his love story.

"Let's say that we trying to collect a bounty and she was part of our mission."

That would explain why they were searching for a girl. "Bounty? And how much is the girl worth?, Kakuzu."

"Difficult to say, because according to my information her bounty has increased significantly thanks to her being busy with murdering new victims left and right. Konoha quadrupled hardship and risk allowance for the second time last week, and they even added added a survival bonus in the case of success. ", Kakuzu started counting with his hand," Kirigakure as well Kumokagure promised 50,000,000 each, while Kiri and Suna are bandwagoning and offering similar sums. So, in short, the bounty for the black princess should be at the moment somewhere around 570,000,000 ryo." 570,000,000 ryo? That was insane. Was the girl a genocidal mass murderer on the run? Because her bounty alone could easily bankrupt smaller countries.

Nagato's face didn't betray his surprise and he maintained his stoic aura instead," I assume then that you were successful and captured her? Or did you kill the girl?"

Kakuzu avoided the question," Well, ... not exactly. No, we didn't capture her, nor did we kill her."

Kakuzu failed, which wasn't a common occurrence. There had to be an underlying reason for their failure and Nagato's interest was piqued," So, the girl escaped?"

Kakuzu smiled uneasily," No, ... not ... directly. Let's say, the girl in question proved to be a surprisingly capable, powerful, and primarily formidable opponent for her age. She was far stronger than expected."

"And that is supposed to mean?" Nagato was sceptical, and for a good reason too. This sounded a lot like a series of excuses and Kakuzu was definitely beating around the bush.

"In the end, ..."

"In the end, ..."

"Yes, what happened "in the end", Kakuzu?" Nagato was growing slightly impatient.

Kakuzu clicked his tongue," Not only did we fail, but we were also trashed pretty badly by her. The girl is good, annoyingly good."

This was an interesting piece of information, a truly interesting piece of information. Nagato focused his eyes," And how "badly" to be precise?"

Kakuzu sighed before answering grudgingly," It might have been substantially less painful, but I nearly got fucked worse than back then against the first Hokage. As I said, we were trashed badly." She was strong, sufficiently strong judging by his report.

An idea took slowly shape in Nagato's mind and his body began walking across the the wide dark cave," I am interested, Kakuzu. So, tell me more about this particular girl. Where does she come from?"

As far as I am informed, the girl is a Kunoichi from Konoha. You might even know her under her more famous alias the "White Death", or her more recent title the "Black Princess"", Kakuzu raised an eyebrow. What was Pain thinking, or rather what was he planning? Because he had an uncomfortable premonition.

"And her name?"

Kakuzu hesitated," Her name is Asami."

"Asami, ... Asami, ... Asami", Nagato repeated her name," Itachi, Kisame ... "

"No, Sasori, Deidara, you will accompany Kakuzu and Hidan from now on. You all have a new mission, new orders."

" And what exactly are our new "orders"? Deidara complaint while Kakuzu ground his teeth. He should have seen this coming.

Nagato answered stoically," I think that is rather obvious, Deidara. I am sure that she will make for an useful addition to our group."

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"Are you sure that we have the right person, master Sasori?" Deidara was doubtful.

"I think we can trust Kakuzu in this case. He had tracked her down once, and this time he has identified this town and this inn specifically. There aren't that many girls on the planet with a black kimono and a sword that try to distribute sweets to children, she fits the description perfectly", Sasori grumbled.

"Yes, but why does Kakuzu then not even want to set a single foot in this inn, not to mention this town?" Deidara wasn't the most veteran Akatsuki member, but what he knew was to never fully trust a 100-year old bounty hunter.

 **.**

 **.**

"Good question", Sasori reflected," However, we should knock first and see later."

"Right", Deidara gave an unconvinced reply and knocked on the door.

No reaction.

He knocked.

No reaction.

He knocked agai ...

"Yes, yes, yes, I hear you, you fucking dimwitted imbeciles! And now stop knocking like a brutish barbarian, I am coming", the girl shouted and they could both hear her grumbling angrily. Something about them being assholes, bastards, and turning them into ... fertilizer?

The door finally opened and they were greeted by a girl in a fluffy satin pyjama with long messy hair messy and her strands that easily reached the flour. Asami yawned while rubbing her still sleepy eyes. Tired, so incredibly tired. And her hungry stomach told her that she could perhaps need a little breakfast. Asami looked up and gifted them with a very, very annoyed glare," You two, who do you think you are to disturb my precious sleep and wake me up at such an uncivilised hour?"

Deidara blinked before finally regaining his composure. Kakuzu told them that she was a "girl", but not that she was so bloody young. She looked so small and innocent, like a fragile porcelain doll. And this was supposedly the fearsome Kunoichi Kakuzu was talking about.

Nevertheless, Deidara remained cautious," Uncivilised hour? It is 12:00!"

Asami tilted her head," 12? Really, it is already that late?"

"Yes."

Asami consulted the nearest window, and indeed the blinding sun was shining brightly as usual. They were right and it might explain why she felt hungry.

"Interesting", Asami maintained her bored stare," So, what is the reason then that you are you disturbing me at more civilised hour with your undesired presence? What do you want?"

 **.**

 **.**

This girl. She was definitely not normal. All of his honed shinobi senses and the hairs in his neck warned Deidara, she was way more dangerous, way deadlier than her innocuous figure suggested.

Asami's lips smiled," I repeat once again, what do you want?"

Deidara cleared his throat," Ahem, ahem. Well, we are searching for a certain girl."

Asami narrowed her eyes and unseen to them her hand slowly reached for her beloved sword," A girl? And what has that to do with me?" Her new black red clouds coat friends were really persistent. Were they stalking her, or didn't they learn anything from the last time?

Deidara smiled uneasily," You see, her name is Asami and she apparently has long black hair and a love for kimono."

" Asami ..., Asami ..., Asami, ... I don't know why, but the name seems somehow familiar", Asami mused," And a girl with long black hair you said? Tell me, why are you even trying to find her?"

"Let's say, we want to ask her if she would like to join our little group", Deidara smiled because negotiations proceeded smoother than expected. Asami appeared to be mostly benevolent aside from giving them a few suspicious glances.

"Your group?"

"Yes, our group", Deidara smiled while Asami was desperately trying to grab her sword. Arm ... too short ... Sword too ... far ... away ... to stab them, dammit.

Asami checked her two new friends and her eyes still distrusted them, but eventually she sighed. Asami grudgingly opened the door completely and let them invade her little kingdom," You may enter."

Deidara grinned," See, that worked better than expected, master Sasori, didn't it"

"We will see, we will see", Sasori walked ahead and he soon met with an unexpected obstacles. The room was littered with a wide variety of empty glass bottles and a sweet fruity smell permeated the air. Asami tiptoed across this minefield without tripping and her bare feet sidestepped them with a surprising amount of skill.

The girl snatched the nearest chair and a bag full of ... candies? Throning on her chair, Asami crossed her legs and enjoyed a tiny piece of caramel, oh sweet sweet sin.

Asami smiled and offered them her precious bag," Do you want any?"

Deidara declined," No, thanks."

Asami tilted her head cutely," Really? They are good and I can promise you that only half of them are poisoned."

Deidara smiled," No, no, I think we will decline."

"That is sad", Asami seemed to be slightly hurt by being rejected once again and consumed yet another caramel in her dejected state. For some reason, nobody wanted her sweets. Even the children in this town didn't take them. Despite the fact that the townspeople became suddenly so friendly and forthcoming when they heard that she was worth 600,000 ryo. Suddenly they were all smiling when she was walking through the streets and for a few brief moment she felt like a real princess even if it was just due to fear.

"Anyway, can you tell me more about this special group that I am supposed to join?"

"Well, we are called Akatsuki and ..."

"Ah, the famed Akatsuki. The feared and terrifying S-rank ninja that strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Yes, I heard about you, or rather I heard the rumours surrounding you organisation and your activities. I assume then that you are Iwa's little terror bomber, aren't you?" Asami chuckled and leaned back in her chair to procure a lovely bottle and a single glass. She stared at her new bottle of heavy red wine unsure whether this time she would get a good year or not. Well, she would find out soon. Where did she put the corkscrew again?

"*Pop*", Asami was filling her glass with the ruby-like liquor of her choice and viewed her guests," Can I offer you a glass too?"

Deidara as well as Sasori both declined her friendly offer, but a certain girl didn't like their answer this time. Asami frowned and her eyes narrowed while inspecting the colour of her wine," No? Interesting, interesting. You know what, your presence ... begins to bore me, my friends."

Asami sipped on her wine glass and surprised them with a sweet smile," So, tell me now one good reason why I should exactly join the Akatsuki. You have one wine glass to convince me. Because I advise you use your time wisely before my mood really turns ... sour."

 **.**

 **.**

His sense were right, the girl was dangerous. Deidara felt the rising pressure of her aura. She was just a smiling girl in a pyjama, but her Chakra was dark, crushing, and heavy, overbearingly heavy unlike anything he had ever sensed before.

Deidara looked up and he realised that a delighted girl was still sipping on her glass at an alarming pace. They were running out of wine.

"Protection, we can offer protection."

Asami furrowed her amused eyebrow and responded with an extended chuckle," Protection? I am hunted by the entire world and basically every sentient being that can carry a kunai, but don't you see, I am still alive despite a few attempts on m life, yours including. So, don't come me with your feeble protection. To be honest, it is rather you who could need a bit of protection at the moment."

Deidara resisted her eyes and the dangerous glimmer they carried," Is this a threat?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, my friend", Asami sipped her wine and laughed," I am delighted by your humour, but this not a mere threat. Instead, I would rather call it an astute observation of fact, of what I could do if you test my patience further."

"So, try again, what do I gain from joining?"

Her smile ... was more than just ominous and it dawned on Deidara why Kakuzu sent them. He knew, the bastard knew.

"Money. You can earn a lot of money."

Asami didn't seem to be entirely convinced and swirled her glass," Money? That is a rather weak argument. If I want, then I can get everything without having even a single coin in my pocket. Why should I need something pitiful like money when I have the power to vanquish nations?"

Deidara fell silent and Asami's frown deepened. Akatsuki was boring, incredibly boring. As far as she could see, they had nothing interesting to offer.

Asami sighed in disappointment ,"I think we should end this fruitless discussion then. But one last question first, was is even the goal of the Akatsuki?"

"Goal?"

"Yes, your goal", Asami clicked her tongue," What do you even want with so many S-rank ninja?"

Asami took her final sip, but she stopped abruptly as Deidara gained from one moment to the next her undivided attention,"Well, I don't know, but Pain told us that it had something to do with the Biju and changing the world."

" Changing the world ... changing the world ... changing the world ...", her lips curved up while Asami refilled her empty glass," You know, tell me more about this Pain."

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Asami was admiring her bewitching figure in a mirror and the new lovely coat with a red cloud that they had given her for now. Her coat was ill-fitting to be euphemistic and her sleeves were looser than ever as they didn't have anything remotely her size. She was too short, too small. But at least, they had a moderate sense of fashion compared to what Konoha had to offer. Asami smiled. Nevertheless, her new coat could need a few modifications. And obviously, the first modification was consulting a tailor and turning the coat into a kimono.

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 **Author's note:**

Finally, it took a bit of time and chapters, but I finally reached the point where I wanted to get since the beginning of this story. From now on, I can really start to play with canon as always indented.

And I incerely hope for Naruto that he will train hard in the next two years or improve Talk no Jutsu, otherwise Konoha will have a tiny little problem.

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	54. Arc VIII Chapter I

**VIII**

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 **Arc V** **III** **Chapter** **I**

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Asami had to concede that seeing Amegakure right in front of her was a truly majestic, not to say beautiful. Especially, when the city was cloaked by the forces of nature and a wonderful veil of rain, which wasn't exactly uncommon in the case of Ame and their eternal scenery pleased her sense of aesthetics and she appreciated the countless dark spires growing further and further skywards. These were silent monuments of cast iron forged black steel, concrete and sheer human will only seemingly erected to challenge heaven itself with their imposing height.

The skyscrapers were just standing there shrouded in shadows and surrounded by an ominous mysterious aura as if they were trying to hide all secrets beneath their cold uncaring surface. But Asami smiled nevertheless. She didn't know why, but she really enjoyed the sight. For her these spires weren't a symbol of Ame's desolation, tristesse and hopelessness. Instead, they possessed an undeniably romantic and tragic touch. These black towers were gloomy and melancholic, but Asami didn't feel saddened by their invited her, welcomed her openly and she followed their invitation without hesitation.

Equipped with her little umbrella and playing in the rain, a lone girl was walking along the misty bridge leading into the village. This was Ame, this was the village hidden by rain, this was her new temporary home for now, and this was the place where she was supposed to finish her initiation by meeting the leader of this mysterious group, or should she rather say cult.

The more she thought about it, the clearer it became that Akatsuki in fact shared a lot of similarities and features with a cult. She should have perhaps reflected more before had getting herself into a strange religious sect. Because she had somehow the uncanny feeling that she had suddenly joined the evil side, or at least the morally dubious she a baddie now?

They were all wearing dark coats, no spooky hoods and daggers sadly. The entire organisation was composed of mentally unstable S-rank ninja, except for herself obviously. She was the only sane person here who was completely normal, really. They had supposedly some sort of strange half-assed world conquest plan focused around whatever. As far as she remembered, it was something nonsensical about money ... missions ... power structure of villages. Nevertheless, it was a world domination plan, albeit a horrible one.

And they were all subordinated to some kind of megalomaniac supreme leader with masochistic tendencies who named himself Pain and proclaimed himself to be a god, a god. Yes, they were definitely a cult and their name was Akatsuki.

Asami grumbled in dissatisfaction. But seriously, how pretentious of him. Especially, when she was still around. How could some lowly provincial upstart from Ame with delusions of grandeur dare to call himself a god right in front of her eyes?! No, this impertinence was unacceptable! She was Asami and she had pure undiluted Uchiha blood running through her veins. In summary, a single strand of her hair possessed more Kaguya divinity than this Painy guy could ever hope to grasp in a million years. So, who did this insolent fool think he was to compete with her? Because she wasn't envious at all. Well, a tiny little bit. But still, if this Pain was a god, then she was a goddess twenty times over, right? She just wanted to be worshipped too. Wasn't that a reasonable demand?

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Takuya yawned and his sleepy eyes were slowly closing. He felt understandably sleepy, but not because he was tired or something else. The reason was ...

"Takuya, is something?"

"No, no, nothing. Don't worry, it is just the usual, Shizue", Takuya was rubbing his eyes to banished the overcoming sleepiness. But it was getting worse and worse, and nothing helped.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Shizue, I am sure", Takuya massaged his temples. It was just the usual. The reason was that guard duty was horribly boring and the most effective narcotic that existed on this planet that you could easily sent entire armies to sleep. It might be a great honour to protect Ame from undesired intruders, an extremely important duty to control foreign visitors and the motto of a shinobi was to endure, but still ... Guard duty sucked and it sucked big time. Standing here and keeping watch day in day out was tedious to say the least considering that nothing ever happened. Did you really need trained shinobi for this job?

Because in the end, you were just checking merchants, and merchants, and merchants, and some tourists that got lost on their way to Amegakure. And, yes, tourists existed, and they wanted to visit Ame. Aside from your typical merchants,however, this wasn't the most motivating post a shinobi could receive. In fact, quite the contrary. But at least it was a safe job and risk of being killed or wounded in "action" was relatively limited, not to say non-existent. After all, he still had a family to feed and a wife waiting for him.

Takuya sighed and looked up. In the end, it wasn't that bad and he had to think positively ...

*clack*

*clack*

*clack*

*clack*

His sense didn't deceive him, he could hear something and apparently he wasn't the only one at the checkpoint who shared the same thought. They could all hear something. The sound of footsteps echoed across the empty bridge and was slowly coming closer. There was no doubt, someone was coming to pay them a visit.

The steps stopped and admist the fog Takuya could spot a misty figure. The mysterious person was a lonely girl with an umbrella. She was wearing a Kimono with a very familiar pattern and her skin was considerably paler than what could be considered normal. But more importantly, her ghostly presence alone gave Takuya an inexplicably eerie feeling that slowly invaded his mind. Her aura was cold, chilling, domineering, dark and slightly frightening.

Run, Takuya! Run.

Takuya resisted this creeping sensation and the girl rewarded him and the rest of the guard with a saccharine smile," Ah, what do we have here? Who are you, my friends?"

What followed was silence and it took them a few seconds to regain their composure. The girl had something otherworldly about her, something dangerous. And her sweet smile didn't help to ease that feeling. Instead, they remained cautious and gripped their kunai. The girl was highly suspicious despite her short stature.

Run, Takuya! Run, you idiot!

His friend Shizue spoke up," Who we are? We are part of Amegakure's city guard. But the better question is, who are you and what do you want here?" Shizue narrowed his eyes and everyone else followed suit.

The girl, however, tilted her head and kept playing with her umbrella," City guard? I didn't know that Ame had a city guard. But to answer your question, I think there are more interesting stories than who I am as I am just here to visit an old friend. Or rather a new friend. A new old friend. Or perhaps an old new friend?" The girl mused and ignored them completely. For her their existence was irrelevant.

Shizue ground his teeth and interrupted the careless girl," I give a fuck about what kind of friend you meet in your free time. What I want to know is who you are and what you are doing here, or ..."

"Or what?" the girl whispered sweetly in ...

Shizue's eyes grew wide in surprise and so did everyone else's. Shizue stumbled backwards and he fell only to land on the wet ground. A smiling girl was standing right in front of him that had just materialised out of nowhere. In blink of an eye, she had closed the distance and appeared among them.

Takuya gripped his kunai tighter while a visibly shaken Shizue got up again from the wet ground. Shizue faced her boldly together with the other scarred guards," Don't move. Try anything funny and we will attack! We are serious!"

"Really? Are you serious, because I doubt it"Asami giggled in delight. The entire situation was rather comical and she was right, playing with ignorant humans was always ... so incredibly amusing and entertaining activity. Toying with these feeble minded souls never failed to fill her girlish heart with joy. Asami radiated happiness. She should definitely do this more often in the future, or at least more often than she was already doing, albeit it was slightly evil. But only slightly evil, in her opinion. So, not really, and not to a degree that a malicious girl with a minor sadistic streak couldn't enjoy it despite a sometimes nagging thought commonly known as bad conscience. But fortunately, that was a rare occurrence and her conscience was one of the more underdeveloped regions of her mind. Because tormenting people in her free time was really funny. After all, without a bit of fun the world was a rather sad and primarily boring place, right?

She loved the faces and raw emotions of her victims. Their surprise, their shock, their fear, the sudden realisation of their total insignificance, wasn't it wonderful? Yes, it was. Their misfortune and misery made her feel better. Both brightened up her day considerably. She never got anything, so why should someone else get more? Exactly, they shouldn't.

Asami tightened her grip on her umbrella and marched forward approaching a confused Shizue. The incessant rain didn't stop and the girl was inevitably advancing through the ghastly fog with each step she took. A crackling lighting illuminated the scenery followed by a roaring thunder. What they witnessed was a grinning girl and the undeniably cold demonic touch her grin and her eyes possessed. Takuya gulped. They were her prey and there was no escape.

Shizue began to sweet and confronted her with the courage of desperation and a kunai," Stop! I said stop, no step further!"

Asami clearly ignored his order and closed the distance armed with a chuckle," As said before, my friend, I strongly doubt your capabilities to fight me and I don't recommend you to try your luck. So, who you are that you think that a pesky roadblock can stop me?" Her eyes glimmered in a frightening dark purple and Takuya held his heavy breath. This girl ... wasn't normal.

The little princess smiled playfully and tapped the forehead of a petrified Shizue before retracting her petite hand. Her gentle tap was brief, but the effect was immediate, abrupt. A loud dull sound awakened Takuya from his stupor. Shizue dropped his kunai and his powerless body hit the ground beneath. Shizue ... he ... he went down without even a fight, without any opposition. Just like this. Just like a lifeless doll. Before his very eyes.

Asami smiled and stepped over the body of her new victim. Her Genjutsu worked as expected and her way was finally free of stupid humans as all of the guards had suddenly decided to part and let her pass. How considerate of them.

Asami tilted her head, "So, does still anyone want to try? Don't worry, your friend isn't dead, or at least not yet I suppose."

Silence followed and she waited for a response in vain.

"How boring", Asami sighed and continued her stroll, but not before a certain shinobi was at the receiving end of an innocent smile," By the way, can do me a little favour?"

Takuya gulped and nodded quickly," Yes, ... that ... would be possible."

"Wonderful, wonderful. Listen, you just have to show me the way, because someone here in Ame has invited me and requested my presence. But unfortunately, he didn't give me in his infinite wisdom any address whatsoever. In short, nothing all too complicated."

Nothing complicated? Takuya knew that there had to be some kind of catch, but he didn't dare to question an intimidating girl who silenced all opposition with minimal effort. Instead, Takuya raised an eyebrow," And who might this person be?"

" Who? I am sure that you know him. In fact, I am sure that everyone in this village is supposed to know him. I am searching for the one who prides himself with the name Pain-sama. So, tell me where can I find him?" Asami's lips formed a smiled while Takuya grew continuously paler. What had he got himself into.

Accompanied by her newly recruited underling, Asami moved forward and they reached their destination, the tallest tower in the western district. And there she met a someone unexpected. She met a woman with lavender hair. An angel that hoovered in the air thanks to her pair of white wings and looked down on her from above.

Her expression was bored and Asami felt as if she was ... ignored by the mysterious woman," You are late."

Asami clenched her fist slightly and hid her annoyance beneath a polite smile," Yes, I know. But finding you proved to be more difficult than expected and I had just to ask a few strangers nicely."

.

.

.

Her emotionless stare didn't change," We already know, and Pain-sama is not amused."

She was here only for a minute and the woman and her attitude were already getting horribly on her nerves. Asami's smile vanished from her face and she showed her displeasure," Not amused? And why?"

"He saw what what you have done and your behaviour displeased him."

Calm down, Asami, don't kill her. That could wait. Asami chuckled while shaking her head," I displeased Kami-sama? Oh, what a shame, I didn't know that. I truly feel sorry for him, really I do. But perhaps he should be reminded that I am not some kind of lowly pet that he can order around as he wishes. Your God should be reminded that is a partnership between equals."

Asami's eyes grew stern and she met the woman's stare. A trigger-happy Asami stood her ground and she would certainly not give an inch. Unfortunately for a certain present guide, Takuya was suddenly caught up between the two and he could feel how the tension in the air was reaching a critical level.

"I see", the woman nodded and her paper wings attacked. Her paper shot forward and met a wall of pure light, an explosion. The room was enlightened by the flash and Takuya was kicked against the nearest wall. The shock wave hurled him against steel like nothing. But he survived and somehow none of his ribs cracked, a miracle.

Takuya looked up and both the little princess as well as God's angel were still standing as if nothing had happened. Asami examined the floating woman and Konan did the same while the dangerous silence continued.

.

.

.

"Pain-sama is already waiting and I recommend you to not make him wait", Konan floated away and Asami clicked her annoyed tongue before following her. What a bitch.

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"Hey, what is, Takuya? What happened?" the bartender greeted his most frequent customer and was slightly worried. Takuya was completely soaked wet. He didn't look good and he had clearly had seen way better days. Instead, he was shivering and pale as if he had seen a ghost. This wasn't the Takuya he knew.

Takuya looked up and sat down at the bar," Shuji, give me a drink ... No, two drinks ... No, better, three ... No, scrap that, just give me everything you have, I don't care what as long as it is strong." He needed alcohol, as much alcohol as possible. Because he wanted to forget. Because he needed to forget a domineering girl that still haunted him.

Takuya downed one shot, two shots, four shot and he kept going and going. Amegakure had gained a new angel and this time her wings were pitch-black.

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	55. Arc VIII Chapter II

**VIII**

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 **Author's note:**

New chapter for everyone.^^

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 **Arc V** **III** **Chapter** **II**

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Walking down a long and thin corridor, Asami followed the mysterious that was leading the way, albeit only grudgingly and because of apparent necessity and the desire to not get lost in this maze. Too many doors, too many stairs, too many steel pipes, too many byzantine corridors and walls that look exactly the same in the darkness. In short, defying her wasn't worth the effort and Asami didn't have the intention to blast her way through the tower ...

But maybe ... Mabye ... Maybe ... Asami was tilting her head and a variety of thoughts began to surface in the mind of a girl with a distinct destructive streak combined with a healthy does of insanity. Thoughts about what she could do with a bit of explosives, just a tiny tiny bit. Perhaps it wasn't that of a bad idea. Her hands were already tingling nervously in expectation while her rising pulse seconded her opinion. Asami was excited. After all, she had a well-know liking for explosives, explosions, and primarily large-scale urban destruction. And wasn't an explosion something truly beautiful? The detonation, the flash, the blast made her eyes sparkle and she always smiled interiorly like a little girl when getting candy. So, why not? A small explosion here and there couldn't hurt and would surely lift her ruined mood ...

No.

Maybe if ...

No.

Not even a ...

No.

Just for fun ...

No!

A cute little innocent explosion ...

No! No! No!

But but ...

No.

Please?

.

.

.

No.

Asami sighed in defeat and accepted her fate. Asami resisted her urge to destroy. She resisted the alluring, seductive, sweet, welcoming, ecstatic, inviting, euphoric, wonderful temptation called explosion. No, not this time. In the end, reason won out in this kind of debates, as usual, and the use of explosive was denied to her, for now at least . Reason was boring, exceedingly boring, and reason was constantly nagging her for her behaviour, which was annoying. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't blow up stuff for stress relief.

But at least she was still allowed to grumble and Asami indeed grumbled angrily in the background as she was still dissatisfied with the current situation and a certain woman in front of her. Therefore, Asami tried something to lighten up the mood, something mysterious and enigmatic called small talk.

Asami attempted to break the ice with a polite smile," So, could you please share your name with? After all, I think we should at least know our names before killing each other next time, shouldn't we?"

.

.

.

No answer.

" Not even a name? Despite the fact that we are part of the same organisation, you don't trust with me with such a simple thing like a name?" Asami maintained her smile while shaking her head in deep disappointment," What a tragedy, right?"

.

.

.

No reaction, nothing. The uncomfortable silence continued and a certain girl recognised that her communication attempts were largely fruitless and friendliness an useless endeavour. She tried to be nice and offer her hand. And what did she get? Less than nothing.

Asami's smile was visibly strained and she tired her best to hide her slight annoyance," You know, continuously ignoring people isn't exactly a sign of good manners and proper etiquette. Furthermore, I should tell you that I find your very presence increasingly annoying, not to say disgusting. An emotionless interiorly dead husk without any trace of humanity left. A hollow lifeless puppet made out of paper, do you feel anything at all?" This time Asami succeeded and her insults finally elicited a reaction, albeit only a small one.

.

.

The woman stopped and presented Asami her blank stare again. Her eyes didn't show any anger, any irritation. They were just filled with cold indifference," What are you trying to imply?"

" You don't even notice, do you? As I said, you are dead inside and it wouldn't hurt you to show a bit of happiness from time to time", Asami beamed," You should smile more often, just like me. Less gloom, more smile."

Her counterpart wasn't particularly convinced and her heart remained unmoved," Smile? The world is a sad and cursed place, I have learned that the hard way. There is no place for smiles and happiness."

Asami chuckled amused and continued to smile nevertheless," Interesting, interesting. And why that?"

.

.

The woman kept up her stare before ignoring her again. She continued her walk," Forget it, you won't understand. You can't understand."

But a certain girl didn't accept defeat so easily," That is rather presumptuous on your part, isn't it? What I am supposed to not understand, you pain? Your loss?"

Konan halted. Apparently, she hit a nerve.

" My beloved mother was murdered right before my eyes and I am since then alone. My innocent hands are soaked in more blood than you can possibly comprehend. Young or old, fathers or mothers, children, I killed them all. My village stabbed me through my heart despite everything I have done for them in all these years. And now I am thanks to them internationally searched criminal hunted by everyone. I think I know enough about the matters of life and death to understand", Asami smiled as usual, but this time her smile was different. Cold, icy and frighteningly indifferent with a tiny glimmer of joy. The girl spoke the truth, nothing but the truth.

Konan stared in silence. Her emotionless mask met the happily smiling girl unsure what to think, unsure what to say, unsure what to do.

.

.

The staring match continued and neither side thought even remotely about conceding defeat. Because Asami had a lot of experience in this kind of contests and staring, or rather smiling her enemies into submission was one of her specialties. The uncomfortable silence couldn't go on forever and eventually Konan pulled back with a small sigh,"Konan, my name is Konan."

Asami scored a small tactical victory," Konan ... Konan, what a beautiful name. See, it wasn't that difficult, was it? And now you just have to show me a smile, Konan. After all, a smile is a woman's ..."

Her refusal followed promptly and Konan gave her the same cold shoulder as before. But Asami wasn't disappointed by this failure. This might take some time after all. Fortunately, she was a very patient girl.

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"We have arrived, Pain-sama", Konan did her an involuntary favour and did all the annoying introduction work for her, which gave her the opportunity to scan the room. And it didn't take her long to spot the back of a certain coated figure right in front of her. He observed Ame's skyline and the ever puring rain while her presence was apparently of little importance. In short, the mysterious figure ignored her and Asami could only tolerate his insolence for now. After all, she was a very generous person and gracious enough to grant him the chance to correct his erroneous path.

But Pain took his time and this supposed god fell increasingly short of her expectations. Unsurprisingly, she couldn't find anything about him that supported his divine claim aside from his modest Chakra reserves. Absolutely nothing. In her eyes, he was a mere mortal human. So, nothing to worry about.

Pain finally turned away from the clouded sky and deemed her worthy of his godly attention. Then everything changed drastically. A single fleeting moment that destroyed everything she thought to know with such apparent ease. And for a fraction of a second her smile faltered. Her perfect facade showed a brief crack. Not because of Pain and his eyes. And certainly not because of any kind of fear. But because of surprise, and primarily curiosity. Asami grinned secretly as she had found something very very interesting to play with.

Asami stared right into his purple eyes and they stared back at her. She could feel his uncanny gaze across the room and how he judged her worth. But Asami didn't care about such trivialities. Because she recognised these eyes. Yes, she was deeply familiar with this colour, this particular pattern. She couldn't believe it, the Rinnegan truly existed, how interesting. She had a few questions now. Questions that had to be answered in the future. Pain was neither a Senju nor did he share any blood with her. So, how did he get his hands on these eyes that were beyond his reach? Or rather, who did give him the Rinnegan? And did he even know?

Pain examined her and his face was exceedingly difficult to read in this darkness,"I assume you are Asami. I heard a lot about you and your capabilities, and I hope your future performance will not disappoint us." A flash enlightened the room and the roaring thunder followed afterwards.

Asami deflected with an amicable smile. For now she played nice," Depends, depends. While I feel honoured by the amount of trust in my person, you shouldn't expect too much from me. I am just a weak girl and I don't see how I can be of any help to your plans, Pain-sama."

Pain evaluated her stoically,"And what do you know?"

"Oh, nothing mayor", Asami acted surprised," Apparently, you are planning to bring change to this world. But the why is unknown to me, not mention what you are exactly trying to achieve. Therefore, I am curious, Pain-sama, what do you even want?"

.

.

The man named Pain kept staring," That is irrelevant. You don't need to know more than necessary for now. I will announce my plans when the time has come."

"Really?" Asami whispered sweetly," So, not even a small little detail?"

.

.

"No."

"A little hint for a very curious girl."

.

.

"No", he didn't budge.

She shouldn't say that, but ... "You know, you are a extremely boring man. Not fun at all. No humour, nothing. You really have to change. Otherwise, I doubt that even a god will ever find a woman with such a horrible character, Pain-sama", Asami gave him a dejected and slightly disappointed look.

.

.

But Pain, however, could only narrow his eyes," Does your cheekiness know no ends?" She was testing his patience.

"Cheeky?" Asami protested indignantly," I am not cheeky. I am just a honest person. Really, you can believe me."

"After all, it is not as if I like to tease people just for fun and my personal amusement. No, I would never do that, probably... Well, a tiny little bit perhaps. Sometimes. Often. But not that much, right? As far as I can tell, it should be generally still be within acceptable levels. On the other hand, though, I really really love teasing ... ", Asami tilted her head and in her natural carelessness she ignored the stare a certain evil man with piercings was giving her. It almost felt as if she was annoying him. Mysterious.

.

.

Pain wasn't amused," Konan, please give her the scroll." What a troublesome girl.

Konan nodded and did what ordered. Asami, however, could only raise an eyebrow," And what is that?"

"That is your new mission."

"Mission?" Asami didn't like the word "mission" at all. In her ears, mission sounded suspiciously like work and that was nowhere written in her Akatsuki working contract.

"Yes, a mission."

Asami wasn't particularly happy with the situation and she had the feeling that Pain was secretly grinning," And why that? Why do I need to go on a mission?"

"Be assured, it is all part of the larger plan. And you will also meet up with your new assigned partner."

Larger plan? She had seen already enough of this larger plans in action. Unfortunately, they rarely tended to end well for her and without her being unfairly victimised. The last time she tried something big, she had to flee Konoha leaving behind all of her belongings. Slightly depressed, Asami opened the scroll for a cursory read, which didn't help to improve her mood. From what she could tell, it was going to get cold, but not the normal kind of cold. It was more along the sense of eternal ice snowy white winter wonderland cold, and she had no fur coat. No warm gloves. No boots. No spats. Nothing. That was problematic.

"Do you perhaps know a good furrier in the vicinity?" Asami looked up with an innocent smile, "And could you give me a little bit of pocket money? Because it could be possibly theoretically that I am hypothetically kind of ... , let's say, broke." After all, a good girl like her was certainly not trying to leech a god and let Pain-sama cover her negligibly small expenditures. Except for on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and every second Sunday.

"I see", Pain accepted, "And how much do you need?"

Asami tipped her lips,"Difficult to say. 20. Or 40. Maybe 60, who knows."

"60 what?"

Asami was puzzled by his lack of understanding and tilted her head,"Million of course, what else? I think that 60,000,000 ryo should be a reasonable sum, shouldn't it?"

Silence followed only interrupted by a subdued cough from Pain. Fortunately, he wasn't Kakuzu. Otherwise, he would have been killed by a heart attack right now. Her moniker "princess" was indeed not just for decoration. Asami ... was expensive ... to support.

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	56. Arc VIII Chapter III

**VIII**

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 **Arc VII Chapter III:**

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"Shizue, have you found her? "

"No, negative, Captain. Nothing, absolutely, nothing."

"I see", Kumanosuke clicked his tongue in annoyance while inspecting the snowy ground, but as expected the girl was nowhere to be found. Nevertheless, the girl had to somewhere and they knew it. They had just to continue the search until they finally found a simple clue, a single trace of her, or her dead body, which wouldn't be exactly the best outcome. Their mission might have been to capture their most recent target "dead or alive", but it was clearly implied that getting her alive was more the more desirable option, and primarily the more lucrative option. For some reasons, the Daimyo wanted the girl and he was ready to remunerate them accordingly for their services. Why?

Well, they didn't particularly care. They were shinobi and true shinobi didn't ask such complicated questions like who, what and why. These questions that were beyond their pay grade. No, they obeyed, they listened, they followed as long as gold and silver were flowing. Because what they needed was money, or rather Konoha needed money and they knew what had to be done. Times were dire ... for the village since the failed invasion and they were willing to pay the price, even if it meant that some shinobi had to walk a less honourable path and accept missions of the more morally dubious kind. After all, it wasn't a real secret that the majority of all high-reward requests tended to leave a shady and bitter aftertaste, and that included now kidnapping little girls to make a living, but they endured. Capturing the girl was their primary objective and failure was not acceptable for Kumanosuke and the rest of his team. They had to succeed, they would succeed no matter what.

Determined as before, Kumanosuke continued his search in the cold. The snow beneath his feet was red blood-soaked by the corpses that littered the icy plains. It took them a few weeks and it wasn't always easy, but they finally tracked the girl down despite her annoying ability to elude them. They almost had her now, but only almost. They had ambushed the convoy, they had killed all the guards, they had killed the merchants, they even had got the annoying old man that was hiding her since the beginning, but where was she? Where was the girl? She couldn't be far.

Kumanosuke ground his teeth and shouted slightly frustrated by the lack of tangible results," Naomichi,Toshikuni! I hope you had more success than we! Anything interesting to report?"

Naomichi shook his head while Toshikuni investigated a nearby destroyed horse cart," No, sorry, Captain, zero, less than nothing in fact. It seems as if the girl has vanished into thin air."

Toshikuni could only second his opinion,"She is definitely not here, or anywhere else for that matter. I suspect she run ..."

"Captain?"

"Captain?"

"Captain, what is?" Naomichi and Toshikuni reacted both confused. What was he doing?

Kumanosuke stumbled over something, something interesting. He stared intensely at the snow-covered ground and her felt a satisfied grin creeping up his face. Found. There could be seen traces, faint signs of small tiny footprints crossing the white plains and right next to them shimmered a well-known red substance. Both was easily overlooked by a careless observer and an admittedly amateurish mistake on their part. Some time had already passed and the falling snow had made them nearly invisible to the naked eyes, but only nearly. In the end, it wasn't enough, her footprints were still there and they betrayed the girl without a second thought. They would lead them to their target.

Kumanosuke looked up and observed the looming horizon. The sky was darkening and it seemed they were about to march right into a upcoming blizzard while trying to capture a fugitive girl in the middle of nowhere ... This would be a lot fun.

"Shizue, Naomichi, Toshikuni, follow me. We have to hurry up, our time is limited", and he was indeed right, time was limited. If the wanted to get her alive, then they had to quicken the pace. This would be a race against the cold and Kumanosuke was determined to win it.

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She was running, and running, and running, and running, and she was increasingly reaching her end. The force of desperation and fear drove a terrified little girl further and further forward amid the falling snow. Her body was reaching its limit and demanded her to stop, but she didn't, she couldn't, she wouldn't. She had to run and she would run with all the force her weak body could muster, which wasn't that impressive considering frail constitution, not to say disappointing.

Yuki always suspected that she was not particularly fast and reality confirmed that she had always been closer to the painful truth than she ever wanted to admit. Nevertheless, Yuki was undeniably slow and she was certainly not made for stuff like running, but she had no other choice and she wouldn't give up that easily. She would keep going and going and give her best, which was sadly not that much. But she would still try, somehow.

Slightly depressed, Yuki lowered her head in stoic silence. She kept fighting her way through the deep snow in what seemed like an endless white path without a clear destination. Regardless of where she looked,there was only white, white nothingness without any sign of warmth or life as far as the horizon reached. It was a desolate place and crystalised water and the icy cold were the only companions for a lonely girl who had lost everyone and everything in her life. So, why was still she walking? Why was she still enduring all of this?

"*cough*, cough*."

Well, the answer was increasingly difficult to find. An answer that was supposed to be somewhere out there, but she couldn't see any to be honest. Instead, everything kept falling apart before her very eyes. Everyone she ever knew was dead. There was no happiness, no joy, no light, there was only pain and Yuki struggled to bear the emptiness inside her, a heavy burden that her weak heart couldn't carry anymore. Enough was enough and Yuki had enough. She had seen enough, she had felt enough, she had suffered enough in her life. She had at east earned the right to sleep peacefully at last and perhaps this was the perfect place. Yuki gifted the world a tender smile and looked around. The scenery was beautiful as she was surrounded by snow and even more snow in a kingdom of eternal winter. Perhaps this had always been her destiny since the fateful she was born. Perhaps her time had finally come.

"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*."

Her limbs felt tired, exhausted heavy, sluggish, powerless. Her entire body was freezing in the unforgiving cold and all warmth seemed to leave her forever. Her feet were hurting and she didn't doubt that were soon about fail to her if this continued. And it didn't help that her clothes were already soaked red. The cut was deep and the bleeding refused to stop while she was losing more and more blood the further she walked. But Yuki bit her lips in desperation and ignored the stinging needle-like pain in her flank.

"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*, cough*."

Yuki endured, she endured as someone who had little, or rather no choice with her back to wall. Every step took a toll on her and every step cost her more of what little force remained to a half-frozen girl. Yuki's breath was uneven and heavy as the cold air pierced her lungs without mercy. The cold stabbed her like a dagger and the stinging pain in her chest was slowly suffocating her as a she desperately fought for breath.

"*cough*, *cough*, *cough*, cough*, *cough*", Yuki stared at the ground and it was this lonely moment that the pure white snow was more inviting than ever. The snow seemed so fluffy and soft from above, just like what she secretly desired. In Yuki's childish mind and exhaustion induced delirium, all the lovely snow was nothing more than a bed that was only waiting to be embraced by a tired girl. Yes, she just a tiny bit of sleep was everything she needed now. Just a little nap in the snow couldn't hurt ... Just a few minutes and then she would ... wake ... up ag ... ain ... That ... was ... sure.

Yuki's heavy eyelids closed as her last resolve finally began to crack. She was tired and she didn't resist her fate anymore, because in the a remote corner of her mind she knew what awaited her. But Yuki didn't regret anything and she didn't feel even saddened. Instead, she only smiled knowing that her time had ultimately come. The ground softened her fall as expected and sleep came easily and quickly to the exhausted girl. Reality slowly turned black as the snowflakes kept falling incessantly until they covered her sleeping body like the rest of the world around her in white.

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"Asami ⁓senpai ⁓."

"Asami ⁓senpai ⁓."

"Asami ⁓senpai ⁓."

"Look there, senpai ⁓."

"Notice me, senpai ⁓."

"Notice me, senpai ⁓."

"Asami ⁓senpai ⁓."

"Asami ⁓... Aaarrrgh", a certain travelling companion fell to his knee as a little girl grabbed her her sword and in a sudden motion she rammed her scabbard backwards right into his stomach with little regard for her partner's future health and surprisingly little hesitation or even remorse. No, instead, an evil and some would say sadistic smile decorated Asami's beautifully innocent face while her newest partner was twisting in pain on the ground. After all, a certain playful girl would be lying if said that she didn't feel a tiny sparkle of happiness in her heart that she saw him finally suffering his due. And it wasn't exactly as if he didn't deserve it.

Clothed in her warm white fur coat, Asami leaned down and whispered with joy," Yes, Tobitobi, did you say anything?"

Tobi complaint," Aargh, Asami ⁓senpai ⁓, why did you have to do that? Tobi did nothing wrong, but Asami ⁓senpai ⁓, is so cruel and heartless."

Did he try to make her feel bad? Unfortunately for him, it didn't work. Asami was generous and rewarded Tobi with a further hit. This time her scabbard hit his head and she hit hard with a lot of Asaminess in her strike.

"Why? You are constantly annoying me, Tobi, beyond what is humanly acceptable. Speech is sometimes silver, and silence is often gold, Tobi, right? Do we understand now?" Asami smiled in a way that made Tobi visibly uncomfortable. Asami was small and short, but her smile ... Scary senpai, extremely scary senpai, want to hide under warm blanket to cry scary senpai.

Tobi was touching his head," Ouch, but why did you hit me ... Ouch."

Asami struck again with a bored look,"Because you keep asking stupid questions ..."

"Ouch."

" ... and because ..."

"Ouch."

"... I like hitting people..."

"Ouch."

"... who are getting ... on my nerves."

Tobi used his arms to shield himself from a very angry and wrathful girl," Senpai, please stop, you are bullying me!"

Asami briefly stopped before continuing her assault," Yes, that was ..."

"Ouch."

" ... intended so ..."

"Ouch."

"..., you idiot!"

Asami clicked her tongue and let him finally go, for now.

Tobi, however, mumbled behind her back and that caught immediately her attention," Tobi heard that women are gentle and tender, but Asami-senpai is not gentle and tender at all. Asami-senpai is cold, heartless, violent, abusive, cruel, evil, and always hitting Tobi ..."

"Tobi", Asami smiled sweetly and gripped her sheathed sword," I hope you know that I can still hear you, right? But I have to admit that you are courageous man. Because it takes either a very brave, or extremely stupid person to say such things right in front of me. So, what are you, Tobi, are you brave or just stupid?"

Tobi paled considerably despite his mask and there was only one sensible choice, he ran. He ran as fast as he could," Seeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnpppppppppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiii, don't hit me!"

Asami followed him, but her pursuit met a sudden and unexpected end. Asami tripped over something and she had no idea what. As a consequence, she landed with her face right in the snow and was lying there now while grumbling angrily. Oh, how she hated Tobi. Some day she would suffocate him with her fluffy pillow after he was sleeping, that was sure.

After noticing that his precious senpai had gone lost, Tobi returned and knelt down to lament her death," No, senpai!"

Tobi started crying," I knew her only for a week and she never liked me. But still, Asami was the best senpai I ever had in my entire life. I am proud to have served under such a wonderful senp ..."

"Tobi", Asami interrupted her funeral in a slightly angry tone," I am not ... dead ... yet."

Tobi raised his arms in happiness," A miracle happened, Asami-senpai, you are alive!"

Asami, however, didn't share his ill-founded enthusiasm and hit him, again.

"Ouch."

Asami turned her head backward more interested in what had caused her fall. And it didn't take her long to identify what was responsible. She stumbled over something that was hidden beneath the snow and that something lay open now. It was a mysterious foreign object that was completely black and immediately stuck out from the surrounding white snow. But it wasn't the kind of black you find in nature. This wasn't stone, this wasn't coal or something else. Instead, the colour, the texture reminded her of ... hair.

Asami closed the distance and what she found was a lonely half-frozen girl. Pitifully weak, frail and closer to death than to life, the girl needed help, help that she wouldn't deny. Asami picked her up and took her in her comforting arms. What a lucky child.

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	57. Arc VIII Chapter IV

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter IV**

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Asami stared at the girl in her arms and deep down in her tender heart she felt a strange unknown emotion that could be only described as ... pity. Yes, pity, or at least Asami assumed that it was probably something that humans would call pity, and she didn't like it at all. Inside her chest, Asami felt such a subtle stinging feeling that for some reasons kept tormenting her. The longer she stared at the girl in her arms the more she sensed this sharp piercing sting in a mixture of sadness and sorrow. It pained Asami to see a girl like this lying in the cold snow right before her eyes. It pained her to ignore such a poor weak lonely creature in need for her help.

And of course a good-hearted person like Asami came to rescue as she couldn't leave her alone. Especially, if said girl had such lovely fluffy cheeks, hadn't she?

A smiling Asami was playing with the cheeks of a defenceless girl, and one of them was visibly enjoying her activity while the victim of her affection was unable to resist her attacks.

Her black hair, her face, and her cheeks, primarily her cheeks. Everything about her screamed doll and that somehow reminded a happy Asami of more pleasant times, of long gone happier times. It reminded Asami of when she was youn ...

No. No, no, no.

But ...

No. No.

She looked like a miniature version of h ...

No, it couldn't be. The resemblance was uncanny, but this was just a coincidence, and nothing more. She wasn't ...

However, the more Asami tried to deny it, the more she knew that it was true. The girl wasn't her, but she looked surprisingly like her past self and that elicited a slight smile from Asami. Equally alone, equally helpless, equally vulnerable. But that didn't matter anymore as Asami was here. After all, she just couldn't leave Asami Junior out here in the dark icy cold. No, no, as long as she was still walking on this earth, her kind heart didn't permit such perfidious injustice, that would be irresponsible. She had to save Asam ..., the girl and she knew it was the right thing to do.

Well, apparently, she was less emotionally dead than expected, or rather than she wished. In the end, she was still way too soft inside even after all these years. Asami sighed disappointed by her own terrible inadequacy . Her heart could still feel and had a trace of humanity left, and that honestly bothered Asami. She was way too kind, too lenient, too forgiving ... That was definitely a problem, but not for now. For now, Asami enjoyed this moment of happiness and she even smiled, weakly. But a smile was still a smile.

Asami's arms tightened and morphed into a full-fledged hug, albeit slowly and not really. Hugging was beneath her dignity and she would never do something like that. Just a tiny little bit. Especially, when nobody was looking and she could cuddle as much as she liked. Asami Junior was hers, hers alone, for now. And maybe for the foreseeable future too. She wouldn't run away. Asami tightened her hug even more. After all, she couldn't just run away and leave her like everyone else, right?

"Asami ⁓senpai!"

"Asami ⁓senpai, have you found anything?"

Yes, Tobi still existed too, what a shame. Asami turned and inspected her partner with a typical Asami smile. The kind of malicious smilethat would sent a shiver down the spine of any lesser man," Yes, Tobi, I have found something, or rather someone lovely."

Tobi stopped and secretly shivered while looking at the girl in her arms," That is ... wondeful, Asami ⁓senpai, ... but why are you staring at me, that way?" He gulped.

" Staring? I am not staring at you. Dont you see, I am smiling", Asami beamed either happily or sadistically, and Tobi was sure that it was probably the latter. It was always the latter in his experience," Anyway, I need a little bit of help. So, can you lend me a hand, Tobi?"

"Senpai, and what I am supposed to do?"

"It is a very simple task, you just have to give me your coat?"

"My coat?"

"Yes, your coat, Tobi. And now hand it over."

"Well, ...", Tobi hesitated, but eventually he gave in and offered his coat. After all, senpai would never take the entire coat and leave him completely naked in the cold ...

Without even a second of consideration, Asami snatched the coat out of his hands and wrapped layer and layer around the girl until Asami Junior was turned into a living cocoon. For now, the girl needed all the warmth she could get and something to cover the wound.

"Ehm, Asami ⁓senpai?"

"Asami ⁓senpai?"

"Yes, Tobi?"

"Ehm, you know, it is cold here and I am kind of freez ..."

Asami wasnt moved by his plea and anwsered with an icy stare," Stop with this farce. You didn't freeze until before, and you wont freeze now. Just take it like a man."

"But ... But ... But ..."

"And I doubt that you would be a tragic loss for humanity, anyway."

...

...

...

"You know, you can be sometimes really mean, senpai. You are small and evil. Small and evil. And small, but primarily evil. Your words hurt, Asami-senpai. Tobi has a heart too", Tobi lowered his head and sounded inexplicably sad, almost as if he was ... sobbing? Not as if, he was in fact sobbing.

*sob* "Nobody liking Tobi." *sob*

This cheap strategy wouldn't work.

*sob* "Tobi depressed." *sob*

It didn't work.

*sob* "Tobi forever alone." *sob*

It worked a bit.

*sob* "Life has no meaning. *sob* Tobi throwing himself from the nearest bridge." *sob*

...

...

"Okay, okay, I would miss you, a tiny tiny bit", Asami grumbled and rolled her eyes.

Tobi stopped sobbing and confronted Asami with new-found enthusiasm," *sob* Really? *sob*"

Asami smiled," Yes, the same way a princess misses her court jester."

Tobi seemed saddened again.

"Her favourite court jester. You are my favourite court jester, Tobi."

Tobi's mood brightened up and he started to cry again, but this time tears of joy," That is the nicest thing Tobi ever heard in his entire life. Asami ⁓senpai, you are the best."

Tobi raised his arms in happiness and tried to hug a surprised Asami, but of course his insidious hugging attack failed of course as Asami simple sidestepped and made him crash land in the snow. Idiot.

Asami sighed," Tobi, I think you realise that you shouldn't always act so rashly. You know that it is still too way too early in our relationship for something like this."

"Mmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Mmm. Mmmmmmm", Tobi's head was stuck into the deep snow, but he didn't let discourage himself and still tried to communicate, which bore as expected little fruit.

"Mmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmm."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Mmmm. Mmmmm."

"Mmmmmmmm. Mmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

Asami tilted her head in curiosity. Well, what was Tobi trying to tell her? Truly a shame she couldn't understand him, wasn't it? Sadly, nothing could be done.

"Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmm. Mmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Hmemlmpmmem, smemmmpmami", Tobi's nonsensical mumbling continued in the cold snow, but Asami decided to ignore his presence, because for now she had to prioritise the needs of Asami Junior. Tobi would survive anyway, Tobi was a stubborn type.

Asami scanned the surrounding area and searched for a suitable place to pass the night. It was already turning dark and the fact that a snowstorm was closing in didn't particularly improve the situation. The girl's body was cold, her limbs nearly frozen, and her pulse weak, which was worrying. What she needed was warmth and a warm place to stay. A nice and cosy place for the night

Something like a cave, or perhaps a igloo.A cave was definitely better, but that was easier said than done.

As far as her eyes reached, there was nothing cave like in sight or anything else that could provide protection against the elements. It might be ironic, but it seemed that you couldn't find a single stupid cave in the entire Land of Iron. Barren snow covered mountains here, barren snow covered mountains there, but somehow no caves when you needed one. Fortunately, that wasn't too tragic, though, as a certain girl with explosives was willing enough to help nature a tiny bit and accelerate cave formation by displacing a few thousand tons of stone and rock with an accurate blast ...

...

...

...

"Ah, finally free. I thought I would suffocate down there, Asami ⁓senpai", Tobi liberated himself from his snowy grave and inhaled the fresh air like an life elixir. He survived, wasn't this a wonderful day?

"Asami ⁓senpai?"

"Asami ⁓senpai?" Tobi asked again, but she wasn't responding.

"Asami ..."

"Tobi ... silence", Asami admonished him," Don't you hear them, someone is coming."

"Coming?"

"Yes, Tobi, coming", and Asami was right. Shortly after, a small group arrived and judging by the appearance they were shinobi, from Konoha. Interesting, what were they doing out here?

The group noticed Asami too and the sudden surprise was clearly written all over their faces. After all, neither of them rally expected to meet a further human soul right here in the cold icy middle of absolutely nowhere.

The shinobi stopped abruptly. Their eyes grew sharper than before viewing her with a healthy portion of suspicion and glares. Especially, after noticing that she was holding a girl in her arms. Their distrust was openly visible and one person among them stood out. He didn't waste any time and narrowed his eyes further," Who are you?" His voice was harsh and lacked any sense of friendliness.

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"I said who are you? Answer me. Immediately", Kumanosuke repeated while observing the strangers in front of them. A small girl enveloped in a thick fur coat accompanied by a man ... ... ... Why was he half-naked?

The girl reacted first and glared back with a slight hint of annoyance," My friends, what's the rush? Fistrly, calm down a bit and take your time, no need to be so aggressive right away. After all, where are your manners, gentlemen? No greetings, no friendly words. Just a rude "who are you?" That is not how you should do it. Try again, but this time in a more friendly way if possible." Was he the only one or did her black eyes have a decisively eerie touch?

Kumanosuke readied a kunai," I don't like to repeat myself and we are certainly here for a friendly chit chat. So, lass, tell me, who are you and your companion? And what are you both doing here?"

Her face donned a smile, which didn't exactly help to ease the comfortable feeling in his chest. His mind told him that she was just a normal girl, but his instincts didn't share this opinion.

"Oh my, what dreadful times and age. So bold and quick with a kunai. The youth these days, no manners. Have you nothing better to do than threatening meek defenceless girls like me? Has Konoha lost now any sense of honour?"

Meek? Defenceless? The little demon was giving the creepiest smile he had ever seen. Kumanosuke clicked his tongue," Youth? I am way older than you. We are way older than you!"

"Really? Do you think so? Appearances can be deceptive, my friend", the girl titled her head and her giggle sent a frosty chill through their bones," Would you believe me if told you that I am ancient millennia old spirit that feeds on the tasty tasty souls of foolish humans? Delicious little humans who trespass their boundaries in their infinite hubris." Her grin was ... inviting to say the least and Kumanosuke wasn't the only one who made an unconscious step backwards.

...

...

The was girl insane, completely insane. Unless ...

Kumanosuke strengthened his resolve. He was a shinobi and he wouldn't be scared by a random loli, just a tiny bit to honest. But that was secondary.

"Listen, lass, our patience is limited. So, stop fucking around with us and just answer my question!"

The girl was pouting in frustration," Always so serious and no fun at all. You guys have no sense of humour whatsoever, you are boring."

What? Kumanosuke raised an confused eyebrow.

Asami continued pouting," Anyway, what do you want from me?"

Kumanosuke ignored the fact that the girl completely disregarded his question, again. Nevertheless, he was glad that they were finally making some degree of progress.

Kumanosuke smiled," You see, we are searching for a certain girl and coincidentally you are holding her right in your arms. So, could you please hand her over?"

"Which girl?"

"The one you are holding."

"You mean my cute little sister?"

Kumanosuke maintained his smile," Yes, your cute little sist ... What did you say again? Because I think you are misunderstanding here something."

Asami tightened her protective hug and refused," No, I understand quite right, you want to steal my little sister right before my eyes." Don't worry, Onee-chan will protect you.

"She is ... not ... your ... sister!"

"I have found her first and I will keep her too. She is mine, and not yours. Ergo, she is from now on also my little sister and you can go fuck yourself!"

Kumanosuke was furious," What kind of logic is that? Stop being absurd ..."

Asami interrupted him," Absurd ?! Absurd?! You are being absurd! You come to me and threaten me without a second thought only to demand from me afterwards to give a half-dead girl to a bunch of people I haven never seen or met before and who are probably responsible for her state. So, tell me who is being absurd here?"

Kumanosuke ground his teeth," Don't make things more complicated than necessary. Just give us the girl."

"No."

"Give us ... the girl."

"No, only over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged", Kumanosuke attacked, but he didn't get far. Asami extended her hand and struck first. A sudden pulse of light nearly obliterated his small group if they hadn't dogded her attack. They ducked by throwing themselves into the snow while the blast passed over their heads hitting the mountain range behind them. She had missed. Nevertheless, the little bitch almost killed them.

Fuelled by the adrenaline in his veins Kumanosuke began to laugh," You thought you got us, right?"

Asami wasn't particularly pleased with her failure," To be honest, yes, but that is in the end irrelevant."

"Hahaha, and why?"

Asami grinned,"My friend, have you ever heard the expression, the unaimed arrow never misses its target?"

"No ..." the earth was trembling and Kumanosuke could hear something violent in the background. Something violent and enormous that was quickly closing the distance. He turned his head and what he saw was a few million tons of frozen water moving downwards. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

"Avalanche."

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	58. Arc VIII Chapter V

**VIII**

 **Author's note:**

New chapter and just some strange ideas of mine.

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 **Arc VIII Chapter V**

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Thanks to the actions of a certain girl, the formerly peaceful valley was now covered by a meter thick layer of snow and ice, which was hardly surprising considering the amount of explosives that had missed their target. Asami was scratching her head. Well, she had to concede that in the end her attempt to evaporate her enemies maybe ... slightly backfired.

The following avalanche tore everything in its path apart. Forests, trees, it didn't matter, everything was buried beneath tons and tons of snow turning the valley into a silent white graveyard, which almost included her, but only almost. Obviously, Asami refused to die that easily as her cute little sister would miss her, or at least she assumed so.

Lesser mortal entities commonly known as humans might have suggested that it would have been a better idea to actually dodge the avalanche instead of facing it head on like a certain girl did, and they were probably right. Yes, probably. Dodging was for all intents and purposes the better idea as she wouldn't be now buried below layers and layers of unending snow, but well ... that is life. Even she wasn't infallible, yet, and from time to time she erred, still. In the end, however, being trapped down here was less dramatic than it seemed. The current situation was nothing but a minor snowy inconvenience as she could still blast her way out, right?

Asami looked up and inspected the ceiling above her that reassembled a catherdral of now and light.

At the moment, a purple dome consisting of multiple layers of Chakra was the only thing that protected Asami and more importantly her cute little sister from the unending masses of snow and being painfully squeezed to death by their weight.

Nevertheless, her grave felt surprisingly ... ... ... comforting. Despite being practically entombed down here in her rabbit hole, the snow gave a Asami an inexplicable feeling of comfort, cosiness and even homeyness. The snow was protecting, shielding and sheltering her from a harsh world like a cocoon. The snow wasn't an enemy. No, the snow was her friend, which was strange considering that her new friend spent the majority of its time with trying to kill her.

Asami was daydreaming once again and tilted her head. So perhaps not a friend. More like an treacherous frenenemy, right? Or was the snow just a friendly enemy? Or even better, a hostile friend? Difficult, difficult. Well, she didn't know. What she knew was that this was a peaceful place, calm, serene, pristine, so wonderfully silent, and primarily darker than dark. Thank to a conspicuous lack of natural light, it was completely dark and her vision was, let's say ... limited in her own little reign of eternal darkness and poor visibility. Asami felt blind and the only saving grace was her shimmering purple barrier that brightened up the cavern, and fire.

Asami gave life to a little purple flame and it became quickly apparent her child was way livelier than many many others of her creations. Asami raised an eyebrow? A purple will o wisp was hovering above the ground moving left and right. But more importantly, her flame was seemingly dancing in the air. Yes, her purple fire danced around her by jumping around in joy, which was ... unusual even by Asami's standards.

Asami was used to her Chakra being lively. Asami was used to her creations acting sometimes on their own. Asami was used to fact that she could talk to her fire, her lightning, and her spheres and that they would even respond. And Asami was used to them being spirited across the board. A few were moody and curious. Others were stubborn, aggressive, greedy, sly, envious, proud, petty, annoying. Seriously, where did they all get these bad habits from?

And some of them just wanted to see the world burn, which she supposed was understandable in the case of fire. Fire liked to see things burn, that sounded logical. After all, she would think the same in its stead.

Asami was still observing how her improvised light bulb kept on jumping around. She was used to all thse thing and normally she didn't bother anymore, but this? This was definitely going too far.

Asami gave her fire an icy stare. Stop this nonsense right here, right now, capisc?

And her flame indeed ceased moving. But instead, she looked now saddened and dejected while growing weaker, and weaker, and weaker. The formerly happy fire shrank together reduced to a small pitiful purple flame and Asami could swear that it was doing the fiery equivalent of puppy eyes if something like that was even possible.

It was possible, because it worked and Asami was forced to give ground,"*sigh* Okay, okay, do whatever you want, I don't care."

The purple flame didn't make her wait and immediately resumed its activity with reinvigorated brightness and obvious joy. It flared up again and circled as before around a less amused Asami.

At least her creation was in some ways useful and provided illumination in these dark times, which was something positive. And not forgetting, her child shed light on a different important question, where was Tobi? Well, the answer became quickly apparent as she could also feel him.

Asami looked down and the enthusiasm in her voice was rather limited.

...

...

...

...

"Tobi, what are you doing?"

Tobi noticed eventually her remorseless stare and his first reaction was a classical gulp. Senpai was scary again. Not good.

Tobi looked up," Is it over? Have the evil people finally gone away? Have we survived the avalanche?"

"Yes, and yes", Asami merely nodded before exhibiting her well-known smile," I am more interested in something else, however. Tobi, what are you doing there? Why are you lying on the ground, and more importantly why are you hugging my legs?"

...

...

...

"Well, ...", Tobi hesitated as what she said was true. His arms were currently occupied with hugging senpai like an anchor and he was short on explanations. After all, he couldn't say that she had a pleasant fragrance.

"Well, these Konoha shinobi were really mean and I was slightly scared by the giant avalanche. So, I though it would be a good idea to seek cover from both."

Asami had a hunch where this was going," Cover? And what has that to do with me?"

Tobi scratched his head and carefully considered his choice of words. His life, or at least his near future would deepened on what he said now," You see, senpai, Tobi isn't necessarily the fastest runner and the sow was coming closer ... So, Tobi thought, what is the safest place close by where Tobi can hide?"

Tobi stood up and raised his arms in happiness," Of course it is Asami-senpai! There is no safer place than behind the best senpai in the world, and Tobi was absolutely right."

...

...

...

To hit or not to hit, that was the decisive question. Eventually, Asami gave up and let it be for now," Tobi, do you have inside you heart even a scratch of honour left? Hiding behind a girl? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"

" Honour? Well, Tobi has often heard people talking about it, but never understood what is was actually about", Tobi was poking his fingers together shyly and averted his eyes," And to be honest, Tobi isn't exactly the strongest person to speak off ..."

"But luckily, Tobi has Asami-senpai who will always protect Tobi when he is in danger, right?" Tobi exploded in a stream of positivity.

Asami responded, however, only with a classical glare and a raised eyebrow," Seriously, Tobi, how did you even get into Akatsuki with this lacklustre credentials?"

"Ehm, ... Eh, ...", he scratched his head clueless as ever," Good question, senpai. As far as I can remember, they were searching for members while I was young and inexperienced, and I needed the money ..."

"Senpai, senpai, look, look, what is that?" Tobi changed the topic.

"What is what?"

"That", Tobi pointed and stared at her flamy companion with childlike glee," Senpai, what is that?" He had found a new shiny toy.

Asami exchanged a quick glance with her hoovering flame that was equally startled by the existence

called Tobi ," That. That is my flame and currently our main source of illumination."

"Oooohhhhh", Tobi marveled while walking around the strange will-o'-wisp,"Senpai, can I touch it?"

"No, Tobi, don't even think about touching ..."

*poke*

...

*poke*

...

*poke*

...

*poke*

...

Tobi was poking her flame with his finger and he had a lot of fun. Apparently, she had succeeded in producing cold fire.

"Tobi, ... stop ... poking ... it. Am I clear enough?"

Tobi stopped briefly and was slightly saddened," *poke*, *poke*, *poke*. But ... But ... But ... Why? *poke* It is cute and fluffy, just like senpai ..."

"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch", Tobi jolted up in pain and rubbed his finger," Senpai, senpai, it burned me."

"Yes, sure."

"No, really. I swear that ... Ouch."

"Ouch."

"Ouch."

"Ouch."

"Help me, senpai! Help me! Tobi is under attack! Ouch", Tobi was chased around by nothing less than her purple flame that was attacking him, which was understandable. After all, Asami wasn't secretly rooting for one side in this conflict and she certainly didn't hope that a certain someone would get a few burn marks. He deserved it.

Tobi was running and searched in vain for cover while being pursued by an angry sphere of fire right behind him. Eventually, Tobi did what he already did before and did best, hiding behind Asami's figure and cowering in fear," Sen ⁓pai ⁓, please help me! I have offended an evil fire spirit! Can you do something to placate it?"

Asami really wanted to hit him and she gave him and his empty head a painful reminder.

"Ouch."

"Tobi. It is neither a spirit nor evil, it is my Chakra, you idiot!" Asami hit him again.

"Ouch. I understand, I understand", Tobi was rubbing his head. Like mother, like daughter. Both were prone to violence.

" So, you can placate your evil spirit then? You created it, Asami-senpai, so Tobi is sure that you can also do something about it, right?" Asami answered with a further smack.

"Ouch."

" Stop poking and provoking it,and you will be fine", Asami dedicated her attention to a more urgent matter. She had better things to do than constantly babysitting a child.

"Ehm, senpai, what are you doing?" Tobi was curious.

"What does it look like?" Asami laid the wounded girl on the ground and carefully removed the layers of coat around it," I am examining her."

"Here?"

"Yes, we will stay here, for now."

"But ... But ... Won't we suffocate ..."

Asami snapped her fingers and the earth trembled. An explosive beam cut through the ceiling and Tobi stared at a lovely gaping hole where previously was only snow and ice.

"Problem solved."

"Well, and the cold? What do we do when it gets dark, senpai?"

Asami snapped once again and a fire lit up," No need to worry, Tobi, fire is my elemental affinity for a reason. So, do you still have any complaints left ..."

"Tobi?"

Tobi was already sitting around her improvised bonfire and warming his freezing hands. He was happy and stared into her purple flames," So warm. Asami-senpai is definitely the best lighter Tobi has ever seen."

Asami ignored his last comment as she was more occupied with the girl in front of her and whose state was worrying. Her breath was erratic, her pulse weak, her blood loss was significant, and her core temperature dangerously low. It didn't take a doctor to figure out that the clock was running and that it was running fast. She had to stabilise the girl, she had to close the wound, but primarily she had to act immediately. Time was of essence otherwise she had the dubious honour to hold soon a requiem for a little girl.

But what should she do? She didn't know any medical Ninjutsu and it was too late for anything else. Asami needed a solution, a catalyst, and in desperate times like these drastic measures had to be taken.

"Tobi?"

"Yes, senpai", Tobi turned away from the fire pit.

"Give me a kunai?"

"A kunai?"

"Yes, a kunai."

.

Tobi searched in his pouch until he finally found one,"What do you need it for, senpai?"

Her grip was tight and her kunai was prepared for what was about to come," Tobi, is the term juice of life known to you?"

Tobi was confused and shook his head," No, not really."

"Well, ... it doesn't matter. What matters is that I take a more literal interpretation of these words. So, left or right wrist, Tobi?" Asami mustered her kunai willing to take a gamble. It might work or not, and she would quickly find out whether her choice was the right one.

"So, left or right?"

"I am not sure what you mean, senpai ... Senpai?"

"When in doubt, go left", Asami closed her eyes and placed the cut. She trusted in her blood and it disappoint her. The cut wasn't deep, but her blood nevertheless heeded her call shimmering in a vivid red with a trace of purple amid the light of flickering fire. This wasn't just mere blood, this was more.

The red liquid was enriched with the purest form of synthesised Chakra she had ever created. Powerful, potent and vigorous.

The blood was slowly dripping down before her eyes onto the wound of the unconscious girl. Each second a small droplet, each minute more and more. She would save her and if by brute force alone.

Fortunately, that wasn't necessary as her blood proved to be effective to say the least. Her wound was already healing beneath a purple glimmer and at astonishingly fast rate. Well, perhaps a tiny bit too effective and perhaps she had injected too much love into the poor girl. But what should happen? What didn't kill you would make you stronger, or something similar. Asami was confident that her cute little sister would probably survive a little Chakra intoxication, right?

Asami cleared the remaining blood from her wrist that was now impeccable as before. Perfect," Tobi, I think you can have your kunai back ..."

"Tobi?"

"Tobi?" Where was he?

He was hiding in the corner and his body shivered in fear," Senpai is using scary blood magic."

Tobi pointed his accusing finger at her certain that he was right all along," Tobi always knew, Asami-senpai is in truth an evil witch disguised as a girl."

Tobi retreated further into the corner as if she couldn't see him ,"And poor Tobi will be the next victim of her machinations."

...

...

...

"Tobi", Asami gave him a blank stare," Sometimes talking less is more. So, shut up."

...

...

...

Tobi nodded in agreement," Tobi understood. Tobi will obey evil witch senpai and talk less in the future ..."

"Uh oh."

Asami gripped her scabbard," Tobi, as I said before, talking less is sometimes. So, why do you have to learn your lessons always the hard way, my sweet foolish little Tobi?" Her smile was dangerously sweet and her dark looming figure was coming closer.

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	59. Arc VIII Chapter VI

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter VI**

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* * *

"Captain, are you okay?"

"Okay? OKAY!?Sure, I am certainly okay and we didn't get nearly killed by an avalanche. No, go figure, Shizue, nothing is okay in this fucking damn snowy shithole. Status report is mission sucks big time. Aargh", Kumanosuke groaned in pain after liberating himself from enough snow for the rest of his life. They survived an avalanche and a psycho loli, but it cost him more than just a few broken bones. His legs refused to move.

"What are you waiting for? For the next Hokage, or what? Get your fucking asses over here and help me!" they listened and Shizue and Naomichi quickly supported him with their shoulders. At least something worked today.

"Captain, and what is the plan now?"

"Shizue, isn't that obvious? If I ever get my hands on this little bitch, then ... Then ... Then ... Aargh", Kumanosuke ground his teeth. He suppressed the pain and marched on.

"So, we are going to search for her, Captain?"

His answer was an incredulous stare, "Oh, fuck no. Do I look like I am senile, or what?. There is a difference between killing someone and being tired of life. No, no, we are returning home. They can fuck around as much as they want, but without us." Screw the mission, screw the money, screw little girls with creepy smiles, he had enough.

"We are aborting the mission then? "

...

...

...

"Yes, exactly." And he would deliver Konoha a slightly pissed off mission report.

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* * *

Yuki's chances of survival were minimal, not to say non-existent. The moment the exhausted girl embraced the soft snow beneath her she knew that she was essentially doomed. All hope was lost and the only thing she could do know was patiently waiting for death to arrive. And hoping that her death would be as sweet and painless as possible. Yuki was never a particular friend of pain and suffering, nobody was. But particularly her as Yuki was what some people might call a pampered noble girl and little princess.

Which was true, she was indeed a pampered little princess and Yuki wore her unofficial title with copious amounts of pride. Blue blood was flowing through her veins , that was at least what her caretaker and guardian always said. Harumi had already served her parents loyally since a long time and she had little reason doubt to his words. He was speaking the truth, she was of noble birth and Yuki remembered.

Even though years had past since that fateful day, even though they were on the run for the majority childhood, Yuki remembered her heritage and she remembered the night she lost her parents. They were killed in cold blood by whom they trusted and what they left was a dark gaping hole in her heart.

Yuki missed her father, but she especially missed her mother. Even after all these years, it still hurt and the pain never subsided. Yuki missed her horribly. Her warmth. Her hugs. Her love. Everything just disappeared and nothing could bring them back. What remained were the misty memories of better times, of happier times.

Her death was perhaps not the worst what could have happened. Maybe it would be even the right decision in hindsight. And as said before, she was already about to die young because death decided claiming her way too early, so death could do a poor girl like her a favour and be a more friendly and less blood thirsty visitor than her recent shinobi friends. They almost killed her and forced a wounded girl to force march what felt like miles across a snowy plane.

And in the end, they succeeded in killing her thanks to the lovely help of mother nature , but that was secondary now. Dead was still dead regardless of cause. So, stupid shinobi, stupid useless nature, but primarily stupid shinobi.

For obvious reasons, Yuki didn't think all too positively about her new friends and her tender heart sincerely hoped that they all may rot in hell, or at least that her angry spirit would haunt them from the afterlife until the end of time. Both was acceptable in her opinion. The bastards were responsible for the entire disaster and they deserved a similar fate in retaliation.

Death came quickly and dying was decisively more comfortable that she had expected. No excruciating pain. No long torturous moments of agony. No struggle, just a slow feeling feeling of numbness that was spreading through her body, and a darkness, a lot of darkness.

Her surroundings had already turned black a while ago and Yuki realised that she was now trapped in a state of fading consciousness, which wasn't concerning. However, what was definitely concerning was this darkness and the fact that the black matter was steadily creeping closer. The darkness was strange, darker than normal dark, different. Yuki had the feeling that something ancient was lurking inside the shadows only waiting for her to make a wrong move. The longer Yuki stared into the abyss, the abyss was staring back at her. The dark miasma was observing her and it seemed genuinely ... alive, hungry, greedy. What this supposed to be normal? No, it wasn't, it definitely wasn't.

Yuki made a step backward and the darkness lunge forward. A further step and again the black matter imitated her. And a further step. And a further step. And a further step, but the result didn't change. She wasn't paranoid and she wasn't just imagining things in her half-dead state, the thing was following her. And whatever it was, it didn't let her escape. What was this? Was this some kind of strange dream? Or was this reality?

Yuki certainly didn't plan to find out neither the former nor the latter in the near future. Therefore, she was slowly silently moving away ...

...

...

...

It had eyes and they were blinking. Big red luminescent eyes piercing through the darkness and they were fixed right on her. This was ... unexpected. And to make things worse, the creature had finally decided to accelerate the entire procedure by sending forth an array of black nightmarish tendrils. Deformed, inhuman in shape, and darker than the night, hands were crawling towards her. They were everywhere, they were many, and it didn't take much intellect to guess which lonely girl they were looking for.

Yuki gulped. If this was a dream, then her dream was decisively more realistic than she had ever thought. Help. Nobody told her about this. Perhaps dying wasn't the brightest idea she ever had and perhaps she should reconsider.

Obviously, Yuki revisited her decision. Considering the unexpected change of circumstances, death didn't seem that desirable anymore. And Yuki did what every iteration of her would have done in this situation, she ran. The little princess was running away from an army of black hands right behind her. They wanted her, but they wouldn't get her ...

Well, they would get her eventually. They were fast and she was painfully slow despite having improved in running lately. But still, that wasn't enough and they were already trying to snatch her like a doll and pull her into the eternal darkness. Yuki evaded the hand and the hungry claws missed their designated prey only narrowly. That was a close call.

Nevertheless, she wouldn't give up easily and make their life as difficult as possible ...

Spending the majority of her attention on thinking while running wasn't necessarily a good choice as a certain clumsy girl had the misfortune to learn soon afterwards. Yuki tripped over her own feet and fell. It was over.

In a last of defiance Yuki shielded her head with her arms awaiting a brutal death that never came. The murderous claws didn't reach her. What she heard was a blunt sound instead. Something hard blocked them and let them bounce off much to the annoyance of the creature in the darkness. The red eyes were staring at her and Yuki could tell that they weren't happy. She was alive.

Yuki looked up and was greeted by the sight of a strange purple shield protecting her tiny figure.

She could feel the gentle aura originating from the mysterious shield. The purple energy felt warm, soft, assuring, and comporting. Everything would be fine.

The shield transformed and changed back into its original less defensive form, a tiny purple sphere. Yuki was startled ... to say the least. She was basically saved by a cute little light ball, what a shameful display. But Yuki wasn't choosy, because honour and self-respect were commodities for people who could afford both.

And what surprised her even more, her new friend didn't show any fear at all. The dark creature snarled and narrowed its ancient eyes, but her companion didn't waver. Instead, a very very brave light ball was standing its ground. Bring it on if you can! I am waiting!

It was apparent that there was little love lost between the two and that both didn't share the same interests. Nevertheless, it was clear on which side Yuki was standing in this battle. A nightmarish beast in the dark that was trying to devour her alive or a fluffy light ball that saved her? Choosing a side was rarely easier.

Yuki supported her new ally with everything she had, namely clenching her fists as a sign of encouragement while bravely hiding behind its silhouette. She wasn't a coward, a tiny little bit perhaps deep down in heart, but nobody had to know that. She was just weak. Her little friend, however, and therefore better suited for combat assignments than her. So, ...

Kill it! kill it! Murder the damn shadow thingy! It definitely deserved it for trying to eat her!

The stalemate continued, but eventually the unknown creature conceded defeat, albeit only grudgingly. Hissing, snarling, baring fangs, it was useless, the girl was beyond its reach. Visibly annoyed, the darkness receded and Yuki sighed in relief. In a single day she nearly died two times in a row. First blood crazed ninja popping out of nowhere and then arcane eldritch terrors. This was too much for her tender heart. She could live with her life being less eventful and less lethal.

In the meanwhile, the purple sphere was staring at her almost expectantly. The purple ball was waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Did it want something from her? Some kind of reward perhaps?

Yuki titled her head unsure what to do while her little friend was hurt by her dejection. But ... But ... But she didn't do anything, right?

The light ball looked at her with the equivalent of teary puppy eyes and it was astoundingly effective. Something had to be done and Yuki was now petting a fluffy sphere as silly as it sounded. And it worked, her purple companion was jumping in joy.

Yuki sighed," Are you satisfied now ... Hey, what are you doing? Stop it!" Yuki panicked and fought against the impossible. It was already too late. The sphere dissolved right before her eyes into millions of small shimmering particles and what happened next was surreal. The purple mist enveloped her and covered her completely. Yuki resisted, but resistance was futile. The purple energy didn't care and forcefully entered her body. The purple mist was slowly absorbed while Yuki could only watch helplessly. It didn't take long until a warm feeling was spreading through her entire being together with an unknown crawling sensation. A sensation of power, of strength, of unquestionable might, and all that was now seemingly under her command.

Unable to comprehend, Yuki stared at her small hands and the faint aura of an entrancing purple glow they emanated in the dark. A beautiful purple glow that kept the darkness away.

...

...

...

Yuki was confused as never before. What are you?

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* * *

Some strange people under the sun might consider waking up and mornings a wonderful creature of nature,but Yuki didn't share this sentiment. She loved her sleep and her sweet dreams. Especially, when she found herself in a little pinch right after waking up. Yuki didn't get any air. She was suffocating and the reason were two arms that were curled around her chest in a tight hug. What irony, she survived two brutal assassination attempts only to be huggled and cuddled to death like a teddy bear.

Yuki's situation didn't improve and her air supplies were rapidly falling as her sense of reality was once again fading away.

...

Air ...

...

Oxygen ...

...

Life ...

...

Help ...

Eventually, the gods took pity on her and her pleas for help were finally heard. The hug of death loosened enough to let her breath again.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Yuki stabilised and now had the opportunity to inspect her surroundings without being about to die. As far as she could tell, she was currently trapped in a sleeping bag by a hug stronger than steel. She could barely move, but at least it was cozy and warm here, which she liked both.

Yuki looked around. Apparently, she was in a cave, a dark cave. And there was a strange fire burning nearby with an oddly familiar colour and a mysterious man sitting around it. He was studying the purple flames as if they were hiding some sort of secret, a secret that kept eluding him no matter.

He dove his hand into flames and much to Yuki's surprise he didn't show any reaction. His hand was burning, but he felt nothing beneath his mask, "What a peculiar fire." Similarly, his hollow monotonic voice didn't betray any sense of concern, just pure undiluted curiosity.

Yuki couldn't suppress her smile. This was perhaps the right moment to ask a few interesting questions.

She mustered all her breath and startled her friend with a simple, "What are you doing there?"

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	60. Arc VIII Chapter VII

**VIII**

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* * *

 **Arc VIII Chapter VII**

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* * *

The man froze instantly, but after a few seconds he quickly returned to his previous activity accompanied by an extremely annoying high pitch," Tobi just imagining voices. Senpai always saying ghosts don't exist and merely a product of Tobi's feeble minded superstition."

Yuki tilted her head. Was he an idiot?

"Ghost? I am not a ghost, I am more real than you think!"

Tobi trembled and scanned the cave in panic," Tobi always knew, ghosts are real! Must warn senpai immediately!"

Yuki protested slightly annoyed," I am ... not ... a ... ghost! I am here, you dimwitted cretin!"

"Senpai ⁓ is here, senpai ⁓ came to rescue Tobi..." he raised his arms in joy before ending up in a state of confusion and disappointment.

Tobi stared at her with a glimmer of sadness," You aren't senpai."

"You sound and speak like her, but you aren't senpai. And Tobi thought she would come to save Tobi from evil ghosts."

Yuki was left speechless by the sheer degree of stupidity," Once again, there ... are ... no ... ghosts. It was me."

Tobi was puzzled," You?"

Yuki nodded," Yes, me. No strange voices from the after world, just me" and an idiot.

Tobi wasn't convinced," Are you sure?"

Yuki smiled, "Yes, I am."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes, really", Yuki still smiled, but inside her heart a profound feeling of primal aggression was welling up, an urge that told her to hit this annoying man called Tobi. But of course she would never display such unsightly and uncivilised behaviour.

Tobi sighed in relief," Don't try to scare Tobi. Because Tobi is easily frightened without senpai."

He admonished her, but Yuki didn't care. She had other worriers like escaping the hug of death and extracting information from her captors. Why did they capture her? What did they want from her? And most importantly, why was she huggled like a stuffed animal?

Yuki cleared her throat. After all, she had to act convincingly, "Ahem. Firstly, I would like to apologise for scaring you."

"Apology accepted", Tobi was happy.

"And secondly, I would like to know whether you could help me with a tiny little problem?" Yuki smiled innocently and to her surprise an icy shiver run down Tobi's spine. He trembled even worse than before, and Yuki couldn't fathom why? Had she done something wrong?

"Is something?"

Tobi was fidgeting with his fingers ," No, no, nothing. They way you are smiling and speaking just reminded me of someone I know."

"Someone scary."

"Someone really scary."

Yuki nodded," I see. Anyway, could you please help me then and free me from this hug?"

Tobi was scratching his head," Well, ... that is ... unfortunately not possible."

Yuki blinked" And why that?"

"You see, Asami-senpai has the habit to be a long sleeper. And Tobi learned that if you accidentally wake her up without a good reason, then her moody nature can be difficult to handle."

"But think positively, you get a free hug from the cutest senpai on this planet. Tobi always suspected that senpai was a secret cuddler.", Yuki wasn't sure, but Tobi sounded slightly envious. He also wanted to be huggled, which confirmed her suspicion that Tobi had a few screws loose.

"So, you won't help me, correct?" Yuki summarised dissatisfied.

"100% correct", Tobi smiled happily.

"I see", Yuki grumbled," Then I have to do it myself." In the end, you couldn't rely on anyone. When push came to shove, you always had to do it yourself.

Determined to break free from the iron hug at all costs, Yuki used all the space available to her to turn clockwise. It was slow and cumbersome, but made progress and turned around her axis to face the mysterious woman that wouldn't let her escape. Her name was apparently Asami and based on her companion she already disliked her. Nobody was allowed to touch her, nobody was allowed to cuddle her. It made Yuki feel uncomfortable and Asami was currently doing both without her permission. She didn't even ask! This was unacceptable! The current state had to change. Immediately!

Yuki continued her personal struggle and eventually she succeed in turning. Yuki was prepared to fight for her freedom, she was prepared to wake her up, she was prepared to use force, and she was even prepared to nag her way out of this predicament. But Yuki wasn't prepared for what was about to come. In fact, nothing could have prepared her for what followed. Her will to fight just evaporated and her heart softened like melting snow at an ardent summer day. She realised painfully that she had already lost before a single shot was fired.

Yuki was startled, puzzled, confused by what she saw. And more than just a tiny bit flustered. Flustered with a small touch of classical blushing. Yuki's cheeks were red like a pair of ripe cherries and it didn't get any better. The discomfort was openly visible on her face, but the same was true for her aporia. What could she do? What should she do? Yuki was unsure. There was no escape from this awkward situation.

Contrary to her expectations, Asami wasn't the kind of woman she had imagined. Asami was young, way younger than she had expected. Yuki stared directly at a dormant girl, a girl that was barely older than her, a few years at most. Caught in her dream world, Asami was sleeping peacefully right in front of her and even Yuki had to concede that her figure was irresistibly adorably cute.

The way she was slumbering calmly. No sign of movement, not a single sound. She was just resting there in serene silence and supreme huggliness. They way she was breathing with her chest moving slowly up and down. Each time her lips moved, a soft stream of hot air trickled across Yuki's skin like a gentle breeze. The way she squeezed hugged her tighter than steel. Her possessive arms coiled around her and impeded any willful attempt to flee. Asami cherished her like a treasure and obviously a treasure shouldn't run away. The way her cute head was pure almond-shaped perfection. Unblemished alabaster with single strands of most fluffy hair running down her sleeping face.

Asami was an angel and she reminded Yuki of someone she had lost a long time ago. She reminded her of ...

Nevertheless, this was too much for Yuki who was still nothing short of steamy red tomato. Asami was too close, way way too close. And she couldn't do anything. She always wanted a sister, but not this way. Dammit!

As a consequence, Yuki was sulking now. It didn't contribute to improving her situation, but at least sulking was something she was reasonably proficient at. Sulking and puffing her cheeks.

Asami's huggle tightened suddenly and Yuki stiffened even more in embarrassment. Her limbs failed her once again and turned as hard as stone. This was a ... complicated enemy.

Yuki chose to retreat for now and quickly returned to her original position. She turned back and gave a certain mysterious masky man named Tobi a very very angry stare for omitting this kind of crucial intelligence.

Yuki wasn't happy and her face showed her dismay clearly.

...

...

...

Tobi failed to read the mood, however, and ignored her displeasure. Enthusiastically as usual, Tobi raised his arms," Isn't she wonderful? The cutest senpai available in the entire Land of Fire and beyond. Right? Right?"

"Especially, when she is sleeping, or rather primarily when she is sleeping. Because she can't hit Tobi then and is largely harmless, but still ... Isn't she cute? A fluffy fureball of dormant evilness", Tobi smiled, but Yuki didn't share his sentiment ...

Well, she did, albeit not completely. Of course, she would never ever admit such and only over her dead body, but Yuki agreed with him, partially. Asami was undeniably ... and she was undoubtedly ...

And to be honest, Yuki wouldn't deny that being hugged was ... more comforting than she had ever believed. Asami was warm, so wonderfully warm. A pleasant warmth radiated from her sleeping figure and Yuki found it difficult to reject her. Her slender arms protected her and certain part of Yuk wasn't bothered anymore by the fact that she was promoted, or rather degraded to a living hug pillow. A very soft living hug pillow admittedly, but still ... This wasn't supposed to happen.

But Yuki didn't care. Something deep inside her wounded soul even yearned for her presence. Her heart longed for Asami, for her hug, for her warmth, and she didn't have the force to lose them ever again.

She missed the caring tender warmth of a protective hug since a long time and Yuki wouldn't let them part. She had always wanted this so much and her eyes were certainly not slightly teary. She wasn't about to cry and these weren't tears of unfulfilled joy. No, no, she was strong. She didn't need her hug. She didn't need her warmth. And she didn't need to hug her the same way she did with her mother. Just like in the past.

Tobi was confused," Are you okay?" What a strange girl. Wasn't she angry just a few seconds ago? Senpai also displayed often this kind of sudden mood changes, so it was apparently not that unusual.

Yuki was rubbing her watery eyes and pretended to be strong," *sniff* I am well. *sniff*"

Tobi wasn't convinced by her performance," Are you sure?" He couldn't fathom why, but something told him that she was lying.

"*sniff* Yes, I am. *sniff*", her voice hardened again and her glowing emotions gradually subsided. She felt better.

Tobi raised his arms, but Yuki wasn't affected by his ill-timed enthusiasm," That is wonderful! Tobi always happy when other people are happy!"

"So, do you want to be friends with Tobi?"

...

...

...

Yuki's answer consisted of snow that was skillfully pressed together to form a spherical object, more commonly known as a snowball. Yuki attacked and her aim was good. She hit his mask directly and got her icy revenge.

"Ouch. What was that for?" Tobi was hurt by her rejection and he was slightly reminded of a certain senpai who reacted similarly. Only her snowball was less snow and more fire, but otherwise ...

Yuki gave him a blank stare and crossed her arms,"You know why."

He didn't and Tobi scratched his head in confusion. They were really alike in some ways. In fact, worryingly alike.

In the meanwhile, Asami was slowly awakening from her deep slumber. She didn't know what, but something was different today. She had rarely such a pleasant sleep like today, not to mention pleasant dreams. For some reason, she dreamed of hugs and someone hitting Tobi with a snowball, which was strange. Nevertheless, she liked both and whoever did the latter had to be rewarded. Definitely a good idea.

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	61. Arc VIII Chapter VIII

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter VIII**

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* * *

Asami smiled happily as her mood today was excellent, which was also the case for the entire week. Every day was a good one, every day was a happy one thanks to a cute little radiant sunshine right next to her, and she had no reason to complain. As a consequence, Asami was less gloomy, less serious, and less verbally abusive than usual, much to the unspoken joy of a certain clumsy companion.

His mistress had stopped hitting him, or at least senpai was hitting him less frequently, which was obviously a positive trend. And the reason for this was that Asami had found a new victim for her special kind of affection, and it wasn't Tobi.

A new victim of her bottomless love, her cuddles, her huggles and anything else that resembled human emotions, which her little ice princess wasn't supposed to possess. Apparently, she had one and it wasn't purely made of cold stone. Tobi witnessed a friendlier Asami he had never thought to be possible and being under her aegis felt never this good. Sure, she was still tyrannical and despotic as ever. Asami was a cruel mistress indeed, ruling over common rightless peasants like him with an iron fist, but his position was improving, gradually. Tobi was understandably happy. Wasn't that wonderful?

Asami was now mumbling a simple thank you when she was commandeering his breakfast for herself. She thanked him now instead of stealing his food without a warning. This was definitely an improvement. Yesterday she even praised Tobi. Can you imagine that, Asami praising Tobi? Well, he couldn't until the impossible happened.

Her princess promoted his morning coffee from a hideous attempt on her life as well as her culinary senses to barely potable and not trying to poison her with brown coloured rinse water. Tobi smiled. He called this progress, a slow and steady progress. His cooking skills had apparently leveled up and some day he still might become as passable cook under senpai's tutelage.

And Asami was even less insulting than what was previously the norm. Instead of calling an incompetent fool and a disgrace to humanity, she just sighed now and called him Tobi and an incompetent fool. Sometimes she exhibited a smile, and it wasn't faked nor dismissive in nature. Her lips really smiled and her smile was warm, dazzling, radiant. A smile he hardly believed to still exist beneath her unforgivably cold surface, but it somehow survived and Tobi witnessed now how the thick ice around her heart was finally thawing as the dawn of spring arrived. Her world was bright again, full of colour. And Asami was happy.

Tobi relaised that this was how she had been long time ago. And what remained were only a few sparse fragments, a few broken shards of who she was once in the past.

But what surprised Tobi the most was the reason for her sudden change in personality, a girl. Yes, a single girl caused her change and Tobi couldn't fathom why. Granted, they looked similarly, they acted similarly, they spoke similarly ... Well, in retrospective, he could see why perhaps. But still, the girl effected a visible change inside Asami, mostly to the better.

Asami really dotted on the girl like he had never seen before. I fact, as if she was her long lost little sister. Asami was nice, inexplicably nice. And she was huggling her lots and lots the entire previous week. Especially, when Asami was sleeping and the unconscious part of her mind enjoyed free reign. The girl found herself with surprising frequency enveloped in one of her hugs, not to say almost daily. Resistance was futile against her affection.

Nevertheless, the girl still resisted in one way or another. It was kind of paradoxical. It really was. Most of the time, the girl refused to cooperate no matter what. Instead she was primarily preoccupied with sulking and playing little obstinate princess. And she played her role well. The girl was constantly puffing her cheeks and crossing her arms indignantly.

She still refused to give them her name. She still protested loudly, insisting stubbornly that she was taken hostage against her will and in violation of basic rights and consuetudinary practices by lawless brigands like them.

But on the hand, the girl never tried to escape despite having countless opportunities to do so. Yes, she might have pretested, but she never even made an attempt to run away. The girl obediently followed them all this time, or rather she stalked senpai like a new-born kitten her mother.

Always jumping, leaping, running behind her wherever possible. Holding her hand whenever possible. And when nobody was looking and senpai sleeping, she was even hugging her tightly. In short, both had a unique, not to say strange symbiotic relationship, oscillating between love and hate. Tobi was scratching his head. Truly curious.

They were marching across a snowy plain and it was safe to say that the scenery hasn't changed much since weeks. Snow, snow, and even more unending snow. And there was no end of it in sight. Nevertheless, Asami didn't seem to be discouraged by the ghastly weather. As usually, she marched ahead, leading a certain girl by hand who was enveloped in an overly fluffy and oversized scarf to keep her warm.

Tobi was more than just a tiny bit envious. Senpai never shared her scarf with him. He wanted it too.

The girl was tugging on Asami's sleeves, repeatedly.

Asami smiled. "Yes, what is?"

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And where are we even going?"

Her smile diminished and Asami reacted with a saddened expression. She seemed disappointed, and slightly hurt.

"How did I say that you should call me?"

The girl noticed noticed her mistake and sighed in annoyance. Eventually, she relented, bashful as ever.

"Are we there yet? And where are we even going, ... nee-chan?"

Asami's smile returned and she pinched her cheeks with childish glee. "See, what this so difficult, Asami junior."

The girl didn't even try to fight the pinching. It was useless. But she could complain and hope for the best. "That hurtsh, you know! And stopsh calling me by thatsh name! I don't like it!"

Asami was puzzled. "Which name? Do you mean Asami junior?"

She nodded vigorously.

Asami reinforced her smile as well as pinching attack. She giggled, amused. "Well, I could and I would. But unfortunately, a certain stubborn girl still refuses to give me her name. And this situation doesn't seem to change in the near future. So, I will call her whatever I want until the end of days, right?"

The girl sighed. This time, she conceded defeat. But only this time. "I understandsh, I understandsh."

"My name is ...", she mumbled into her scarf, barely audible and with a certain sense of defiance," ... Yu ... ki."

Asami titled her head. "What did you say? I didn't you hear hear you. You have to be louder."

Yuki grumbled slightly. "Yuki, my name is Yuki."

Asami maintained her bitter-sweet smile. "Louder."

Yuki exploded and threw a miniature temper tantrum. "I said my name is Yuki! Satisfied?" She crossed her arms and hid within her scarf, offended and grumpy.

But Asami didn't care. Her smile broadened and she patted Yuki's head. "Yuki ... Yuki ... What a lovely name. I will make sure to never forget it, Yuki-chan."

As Tobi had said before, they were a strange duo.

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* * *

It took much time, but they, finally, arrived at their destination. Mainly due to a certain additional member their group had gained. Nevertheless, they arrived.

A castle of ice and stone was rising up before them. Situated on a hill and surrounded by a seemingly lifeless city. They got through the gates and pair of grumpy distrusting easily, but aside from these friendly guard and a few shadowy figures the entire city was deader than dead. They streets were empty and daily had ceased , which wasn't surprising.

It was winter. It was cold. The sun was already setting. And nobody sane-minded wanted to challenge minus thirty degree in the open. So, it was understandable.

The castle wasn't anything spectacular and quite modest in size considering that it was the residence of the local feudal lord. But as the surrounding lands weren't famous for their prosperity and wealth, it only seemed logical. The Land of Iron was by no meas poor, but they were certainly not rich.

What worried Asami, however, was Yuki. She tried to mask it, but she was growing increasingly anxious, the closer they got to the castle. Yuki gripped her hand tighter than ever before. Her pulse was racing. And she was visibly uncomfortable.

Asami looked concerned. "Yuki-chan, is something bothering you?"

Yuki ignored her innocuous question for far too long. Instead, she stared at the ground. "Nothing, nee-chan. I just don't feel good, that is all." She was lying and it was painfully obvious. Something was wrong.

"Are you sure?"Asami furrowed a worried eyebrow.

Yuki nodded and smiled weakly. "Don't worry, nee-chan, I am good. You don't have to worry." She reassured her, but Yuki's grip on her hand nevertheless tightened.

"If you say so."

"Halt!" Asami's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a guard who pointed in his imprudence a sharp object known as a spear in her direction.

"Who are you? And what are you doing?" The guard gave her an icy, which seemed to be a common occurrence here in the cold north. And he wasn't alone. There were more soldier and their stares didn't lack the right amount of animosity.

Asami deflected them with a gentle smile. She removed the spear from her face with her. "Let's s dispense with this sort of formalities. I think you should put your spear aside before you hurt anyone. We don't want that to happen, do we?"

The guard didn't budge and fixed his weapon on her again. "You didn't answer my question. Who are you!? And what do you want!?"

Asami was displeased and played with her nails. "Anyway, your gracious lord and master requested our presence. He called for us and now we are here. So, could you please inform him that we have arrived."

His expression softened and he furrowed a confused eyebrow. "So, you are these elite shinobi he told us about?" He was doubtful.

Asami nodded. "Yes."

The guard didn't seem to be convinced. "Well, I find that hard to believe. No offense intended, but what I see are only an idiot. "He stared at Tobi. "And one little ... or rather two little girls."

"I agree."

"Nevertheless, could you allow us to pass? We have work to do. I have work to do. And I can promise you we are the real ones." Asami deployed her most charming smile and a beautiful face. And it worked.

The guardsman stiffened in embarrassment and his remaining resistance crumbled. He stuttered. "Yes, yes, of course."

He stepped aside and so did the rest of the guardsmen. They parted and made way for her. They all followed the girl's as though it was only natural. It was natural to obey her and it didn't bother them. They were trained samurai, the Land of Iron's finest. They had honed their skills, their spirits for years, but all was seemingly powerless against a little girl and her bewitching smile. And primarily her eyes.

Not only Yuki was surprised their sudden change in behaviour, but also Tobi. He stiffened. How ... did she ... do that?

Asami was delighted and rewarded her lovely puppets with a further gentle smile. "Thank you very much. I appreciate your cooperation in this matter."

Asami giggled and took Yuki's hand. "Come, Yuki-chan. We don't want to make our employer wait, right?"

Yuki nodded weakly. Her hand was still trembling, shaking in fear.

"Don't worry, you have me. Nee-chan will protect you, whatever the cost might be." Asami pressed her hand.

Yuki looked up, unsure. "Really?"

"Yes, I will." It was a yes, a definite yes.

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	62. Arc VIII Chapter IX

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter IX**

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"Ah, it is always a honour to welcome such illustrious guests as you. Especially, in such a modest home as mine." It took some time to finally meet their mysterious employee.

Asami and company had just to pass more gates, doors, rooms than she could count, and not forgetting a significant number of guards and even more guard, which wasn't something extraordinary. As a daimyo, her client was a rich and influential man. And rich and influential men like him were obviously concerned for their personal health and safety.

Especially, in such a dangerous world like this where powerful shinobi were roaming around freely without any sort of proper control. After all, everybody still wanted to live a few peaceful years and the best protection money could afford was only good enough. He certainly many samurai and even a sizeable amount of shinobi.

They were staring, watching Asami and her little group intently with a mixture of distrust and classical iciness when they were walking down the corridor. They followed her movements and Asami could practically feel their prying eyes on her back. Nevertheless, Asami smirked secretly. it was kind of amusing, it really was. Because whether they were of any use against her was another question altogether.

Asami smiled lovely at her latest employee. A good first impression was important. He was a young man, a handsome young man some might even say. His face, his eyes, his smile were charming, seducing, bewitching. His looks were excellent by the majority of beauty standards, but a certain girl didn't trust her new friend even for a mere second. Asami disliked the man the moment she saw him and she could only barely cover her disgust and utter contempt.

His facade couldn't deceive her. His smile lacked any sort of genuine emotions and it was painfully obvious. His smile was perfect, so wholly perfect. It had to be fake. And it was fake. The man was sly, slier than she gave him initially credit for. Perhaps that was the way how he attained his position despite his young age. His age was peculiar ... to say the least.

Asami maintained her smile. "Well, the honour is all mine. After all, someone as humble as me rarely enjoys the privilege to serve a mighty daimyo ..."

"What's your name again? Unfortunately, I tend to easily forget names." Asami tilted her head, innocently as usual.

He was hiding his annoyance well behind the cold shell of his smile, but her little remark visibly stung him. He was arrogant, foolishly arrogant. His pride was hurt and Asami's sadistic streak certainly didn't enjoy what she was doing. Poking people was always so fun, wasn't it?.

"My name? Well, it understandable that someone as busy as you might forget my name." He still smiled. "My name is Mitsuhiko. And you are advised to remember it well."

Was she? Asami furrowed a doubting eyebrow. She wasn't particularly convinced. "Should I? Well, I will try my best to remember the name of my dearest customer. I promise, ...I think it was Mitsuhiko, wasn't it?"

Asami inspected her nails and he ground his teeth to little avail. She didn't exhibit even a modicum of respect. Instead, the girl ignored him completely. She didn't care about his meager existence and she let it him know very clearly. He was nothing.

How could be so much cheekiness trapped in such a frail body? He didn't know the answer, but what he knew at least was that the girl was genuine. She was the one and only Asami. Her pride was legendary by this point and so were her abilities.

Since her great betrayal, since what she had done to Konoha, her name was well-known across the lands. Who wouldn't? This girl with her innocent cheeks razed half of Konoha down to the ground without the slightest sign of hesitation. At the age of thirteen, she had more blood on her hands than other shinobi in their entire life. And the amount of blood was considerable.

The name Asami carried meaning, but most importantly, her name was feared for understandable reasons. Mitsuhiko certainly didn't expect to contract the little princess herself when he contacted Akatsuki. But life wasn't fair and he had now to swallow a bitter pill, a very bitter and dangerous girl was incalculable and he had to tread carefully. Because you never knew what these shinobi were up to.

He smiled. "Yes, it was. And I am glad you remember it. I truly am."

It didn't work and her princess was as grumpy as before. In fact, her mood only soured further.

"My friend, I say it once and for all, I dislike sycophants ... No, I detest them. So, Mitsuhiko, please do me a favour and save your empty flattery for later on. Perhaps, it will be of some use then." Asami snarled.

"I see." Gone was any smile and the man finally showed his true colours. His eyes were cold and his face unmoving like granite. He was an empty shell of a human being that never felt anything. "Your tongue as well as your mind are surprisingly sharp for a girl of your age. Nobody told me about that."

Asami clicked her tongue. "Oh, what a shame, I truly feel sorry for you. Trust me, I do. But don't worry, the dislike is mutual."

"Anyway, I see that you have apparently a lot of guards." Asami scanned her surroundings, forcibly changing the topic. "Do you not trust us, Mitsuhiko? Because I feel kind of threatened by their presence. I hope that you don't plan anything funny."

Asami hit a nerve and he scowled. Threatened? By their presence? Sure. It was him who felt and was threatened, and not her. After all, he didn't share a room with a homicidal maniac girl whose mental stability was questionable at best.

"I can promise you it's nothing of that kind. They are just present for security purposes."

"For security purposes?" Asami was sceptical. What was that supposed to mean?

"Yes. You see, certain nobles and rebellious elements within the population are discontent with my rule and the way things are going since."

Asami didn't know the exact details, but she could fairly well guess what this "discontent" and "rebellious elements" were about. Mitsuhiko was an ambitious man, and ambitious men like him tended to provoke friction as well as opposition. And based on his character and the number of men he had under his command, he didn't plan to settle these disagreements by peaceful alone. Apparently, the rumours were true and these lands were indeed ruled with an iron fist for quite some time.

Therefore, I am a bit concerned about my personal security. Especially, since what happened to my brother ... A tragedy." The faker sighed as though he would really care. He didn't.

Asami raised an eyebrow. "You had a brother?"

He nodded. "An older brother. He died a few years ago shortly after succeeding our deceased father. It was a tragic day. He died together with his wife and his only daughter in a mysterious fire. Half of the castle burned down and he was sadly killed in the flames that night, what an unfortunate turn of events. We never discovered what caused the fire, but certain voices whisper that some disgruntled nobles laid it deliberately." There was it again, his fake smile. He smiled at her. "So I thought better safe than sorry, right?"

"Right." Asami agreed for the time being, albeit she didn't buy his lovely story completely.

More than a few details seemed odd, but that could be also just her rampant paranoia. An older brother who was the original heir died in a mysterious fire only to be succeeded by a more than eager younger brother who now ruled the land with a conspicuous amount of military power. It didn't take much to put two and two together to guess what happened here behind the scenes. But as said, it was just a hunch and nothing more.

Anyway, let's change to a less tragic topic. I see that you brought a girl with you, even though she tries her best to hide from me. May I know who she is? Is she a part of your group?"

Yuki shared her antipathy for Mitsuhiko and it didn't escape her that Yuki avoided him directly. She was hiding in her silhouette. Yuki clutched her hand tightly and Asami reciprocated. Yuki was scared, but she would protect her.

Asami smiled while shoving Yuki protectively further behind her back where she was safe. "Oh, she is my little sister. Yuki-chan is a bit shy around people, but Isn't she adorable?"

Mitsuhiko blinked. The surprise was written all over his face. "Yuki-chan?"

Asami returned her attention to him. "What's the matter, Mitsuhiko? You seem surprised?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." Mitsuhiko quickly regained his composure and relaxed again. "I was just briefly startled by the name. Yuki ... what an interesting coincidence, truly interesting."

Asami narrowed her eyes. "Coincidence? What do you mean?"

He chuckled. "As I said, nothing. But you will see what I meant. Anyway, if you would please follow me. I think we have much to discuss regarding your mission." A door opened and he showed Asami the way. He had prepared a nice room for her and their little briefing. Their mission was a private matter that should be only discussed behind closed doors, literally.

Asami stepped forward, but not without suddenly halting. Tobi was forced to stop and so was Yuki. Both were confused by her inexplicable action.

Tobi tilted his head. "Senpai, is something?"

Asami ignored them and stared at Mitsuhiko, thoughtfully. She was thinking. "Tobi, Yuki, I will go in alone. You won't come with me. I will meet up with you afterwards, after I am finished with this here, understood?"

Tobi nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Are you you sure that is a good idea, senpai?"

"Yes, I am." Asami had no doubts. She leaned down and awarded Yuki as usual with her most lovely smile. "You will go with Tobi and will wait down in the city for my return. I am sure you are hungry and that you could enjoy some warm food, right?" Asami was petting her head gently.

Yuki nodded weakly and listened. She was still scared to a degree that wasn't normal. And it was getting worse and worse since they set a foot into this castle. Something was definitely wrong with this place and she would find out what.

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They were both sitting and Asami observed her counterpart carefully. She was surrounded by four guards. They were supposedly his most trusted ones while a further contigent. Eventually, Asami broke the uneasy silence. She wanted to know more and perhaps she would even find the answer to a few unsolved questions.

Asami sighed and relaxed slightly. "So, what is our mission then exactly, Mitsuhiko? So far, you weren't particularly forthcoming with the specific details of our mission. As far as I know, we are supposed to search for a certain person, correct?"

He nodded after sipping on his tea. "Yes, correct. Your objective is to track down a certain girl for me and kill her. I want her to be eliminated under all circumstances and no matter the cost. She has to be silenced and I will reward you accordingly."

Asami raised an eyebrow. "I hope so, my services are not cheap. But who is this mysterious girl exactly who has to die? After all, I need her identity otherwise finding her might be quite difficult. I need information, Mitsuhiko, and a trace if possible."

He nodded and ordered one of the guards to step forwards. "Understandable and I expected such. Shunko, hand her the folder."

The man presented her said folder. Asami took it without hesitation while Mitsuhiko continued his explanation. "As you can see, the files contain all the information we have collected about her whereabouts over the last years."

"I see." Asami intended to scan the contents, but she froze immediately the moment she saw the picture and the name of her new target. The picture was already a few years old, but it reminded her of someone she knew. And not in a good way. Even the girl's name was uncomfortably familiar.

Asami stared at the photo and eventually mumbled barely audible," Yuki ..."

Mitsuhiko enjoyed his tea with a cold smile. "Yes, Yuki. Your mission is to find my sadly still alive niece and eliminate her. Unfortunately, she had survived the fire back then because of a certain retainer that was still loyal to my brother. Thanks to him, she is eluding us ever since and we were never able to seize her, which is a problem as you might understand. It would be problematic if some people ever found out that the true heiress was still alive."

Asami understood. She understood very well what was going o here.

Mitsuhiko's grin broadened. "Anyway, I hope you will be more successful than your predecessors. The majority of them had only modest success, even the Konoha Jonin I hired a month ago failed spectacularly.I honestly expected more from them. Especially, after their initial progress. Apparently, they nearly had her, but then their reports suddenly ceased ... Well, it doesn't matter. Do you need anything else?"

Asami giggled. She was smiling. "Yes, I do. I think, Mitsuhiko, we need to have a little conversation about something else." Asami looked up and her eyes were glimmering dangerously in an otherworldly purple.

Her Susanoo struck first and a skeletal arm pinned Mitsuhiko against the nearest wall, nearly strangulating him on the spot. He was suffocating as her grip grew tighter and tighter.

"Mitsuhiko, tell me, more about that night. I want to know more." Her smile was seductively sweet, not to say cute.

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	63. Arc VIII Chapter X

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter X**

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Asami's lips formed a happy smile, but Mitsuhiko and the rest of the room couldn't share her sentiment. A purple monstrosity struck Mitsuhiko against the wall, nearly killing him while his guards could only watch. They were powerless, unable to assist their master even in the slightest.

The air was tense and the situation started to escalate quickly. His men reacted promptly, drawing their swords. The doors opened and reinforcements stormed the room. They surrounded her from all sides and pointed their glorified sticks in her direction as if they could threaten her. They narrowed their eyes and put a brave facade, but deep within them she could detect something else ... fear, undiluted fear.

She saw in the white of their eyes they feared her. Not only one, but all of them. Asami grinned. Nevertheless, their spirit didn't falter. They stood their ground admirably and one man had even the courage to confront her. He gripped his sword tightly and the remaining samurai followed suit.

He yelled in a false sense of bravado,"Release our Lord immediately! Let him down and we might overlook your actions and spare you ..."

"Spare me?" Asami answered with an ominous giggle. Her new friend was entertaining, to say the least.

She grinned dangerously. " Do you really think that you can threaten? Do you really think that you can give me orders? My friend, you are overestimating your position. So lower your weapons before my mood worsens. Because I might be less gracious in the future." He stared into her black eyes and the abyss stared back.

The samurai ground his teeth, his rage visible. "You! Who do you think you are?"

Asami tilted her head in an innate sense of superiority. They were inferior to her in so many ways and of course, she looked down on them. "Oh, that is easy. I am someone far more powerful than you can ever imagine. So I recommend you to know your place."

He wasn't persuaded by her friendly reminder. Instead, his resolve strengthened even more."No, never. We won't back down just because a little girl tells us to do so. We will ..."

Stop it, Kazuma, you are only making things worse. Don't act rashly! Don't provoke her under any circumstances! *cough* *cough*" Mitsuhiko intervened before it was too late. The girl would slaughter them all.

Kazuma blinked, confused by his lord's orders. "But ..." His eyes were still narrowed at Asami.

"No buts, Kazuma. I said don't provoke her under any circumstances and I also meant it that way! So do as she says and lower your weapons, Kazuma! Immediately!"

Kazuma hesitated, but eventually, he obeyed, albeit grudgingly. He lowered his sword for the time being and much to Asami's amusement.

Asami was pleased. "Mitsuhiko, it seems that you are far smarter than you look."

Mitsuhiko put up his best smile. "I am glad to hear that. Anyway, I hope we can solve this situation peacefully. After all, this is all just an unfortunate misunderstanding." He played a risky game and he lost.

"Misunderstanding?" Asami grinned sheepishly. "I don't think so. This isn't a misunderstanding; Mitsuhiko, and I know exactly what I am doing. So tell me more about that fateful night."

"What do you mean by telling more? There is nothing I could tell you! *cough* *cough*" Mitsuhiko air supply was dwindling as breathing grew increasingly difficult. Hes was practically chocked to death and asphyxiation was steadily coming closer. A skeletal arm stretched across the entire room. Coated in a menacing, almost demonic purple, the bones squeezed his thorax, his lungs together, gripping Mitsuhiko tighter and tighter.

Her creation was crushing him and Mitsuhiko doubted that his death would bother her for even a second. Her flames devoured her own village. She turned against her own and killed them in thousands. So why should she care about his life? She didn't.

She would crush him just like a tiny insect and right now this option seemed to be very likely. The girl increased the pressure and Mitsuhiko could feel how his bones were already yielding. They were cracking and soon they would snap like simple toothpicks if he couldn't placate her quickly. Somehow he had elicited Asami's wrath and he was well advised to appease her by all means.

Mitsuhiko clung to his poker face, albeit he didn't have much choice in that regard. "So what do you want?"

He regretted what he had said as he was punished immediately for his transgression. Her purple arm tightened suddenly and one if his ribs paid the price. A brief crack echoed through the air before the pressure finally relented again. She didn't kill him yet as she still needed Mitsuhiko, preferentially alive.

An ominous giggle filled the room before a certain girl greeted her new friend with a sinister smile. Asami smiled and Mitsuhiko paled considerably, and so did the present guards. They froze and it was because of her.

The surrounding samurai felt the distinct presence of her Chakra and the aura it was emanating. An uncaring, cold, threatening ... murderous maelstrom. And it was targeting them.

The air was saturated with her Chakra and any attempt to escape seemed delusional. They were scared, frightened, terrified. Asami laughed, her abyss-like purple eyes staring at him.

"What I want? Mitsuhiko, I think we both know what I want as well as I what I mean, don't we? Anyway, I don't like to repeat myself, but I will make an exception extra for you. Once again, tell me more about the night when your brother died? It shouldn't be all too complicated, right? Because I am sure you remember well." Asami tilted her head innocently.

She smiled, but Mitsuhiko wasn't the only one in the room to sweat. Asami still played the cute girl and she enjoyed her role visibly. She was sitting there peacefully with a happy smile as if she wasn't threatening to kill them all and as if a giant purple skeleton wasn't occupied with strangulating him alive. But she couldn't deceive anyone, at least not anymore.

Mitsuhiko mustered all of his courage. "As said, I don't know what you are talking about! And why should it even matter what happened to my brother!? He is dead and that's the end of the story!"

Asami shook her head, sighing. "Mitsuhiko, it is true that to you it doesn't matter much, but to me it is of primary importance, of immense importance. So please, tell me, are you responsible for killing your brother? You killed him, didn't you?" She grinned and gave him a well-knowing stare.

Mitsuhiko ground his teeth and reciprocated her stare slightly enraged. Why? What was so important about his brother?

"Yes, I did. And now what? Are you going to kill me for that? The infamous butcher of Konoha will kill me just because I murdered my brother?"

Asami smiled like a ray of happy sunshine. "Oh, no, not for that. I will kill you because you, Mitsuhiko, destroyed her home, killed her father and murdered her beloved your mother. You took everything from her and I will everything from you. Doesn't that seem fair?"

"What?" Mitsuhiko's eyes grew wide in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

He struggled with all his force. He tried to resist the grip of her Susanoo, but everything was in vain. The girl was serious. She would really kill him. Mitsuhiko began to sweat.

Asami grinned knowingly, resembling more the reincarnation of the grim reaper. "Mitsuhiko, I think it is time to tell you a little story. It is the story of a found a poor girl on the way here. She was weak. She was alone. She was just lying there in the snow, peacefully as if she was sleeping., condemned to die by freezing to death. I took pity on her and carried her cold husk in my arms. Later I found that she was apparently pursued by a group of Konoha shinobi. Obviously, I easily repelled them. They wanted the girl, but I protected her. I would never give her up."

"I didn't think much about this incident back then, but do you know the name of the girl I rescued, Mitsuhiko? Do you know the name of the girl who is accompanying me ever since? Do you know the name of the girl who is clinging to me every morning I wake up? Every day, she is hugging me in her sleep, Mitsuhiko. So do you know her name? I will tell you, it's ... Yuki."

Mitsuhiko's blood froze as his eyes shot wide in horror. He realised the gravity of his situation. Yuki ... Yuki ... Yuki, it was her. Why didn't he recognise her? She was so close, right in front of her.

Asami smiled. "It seems you have finally understood. Took you quite some time. And now ..."

"Wait! Wait!" Mitsuhiko yelled, visibly panicked. " Wait! We can negotiate! Do you need money? Land? Power?"

"Oh, so you are trying to bribe me?" Asami chuckled. "It is true that I like money and power ..."

"Ah, I see, I see" Mitsuhiko was desperate."I can give you everything. Everything you want and more!"

Asami furrowed an eyebrow. "I doubt that."

Mitsuhiko was paling. "Kazuma, bring in the money! Quickly!"

His men listened and they brought forward a wooden box filled to the brim with notes. It was a lot of money, a few million, but not enough for her.

Her Susanoo released her victim and Asami shook her head, sighing. "Mitsuhiko, I don't think this will suffice to save your life ..."

He still believed that he could save himself. "I understand. In that case I can organise even more. Kazuma!"

His men brought another box which was significantly heavier than it predecessor. And Asami quickly realised what made the box so heavy. In the box was ... gold., pure gold Hundreds of gold bullion were amassed right in front of her, bewitching her with their magical golden aura. The gold was tempting a very greedy Asami. Must steal ... the gold. Her treasure.

And it didn't end there. The samurai deposited to further boxes with even more gold and sitting among the bullion was a lovely cat winking her with a tiny paw and made of massive gold. The statuette was beckoning her to come closer with its happy smile. As if it was meowing at her.

Asami claimed her maneki neko first, inspecting her new lucky charm, her new heavy lucky charm. The statuette was heavy, albeit lighter than she had expected considering its size. Nevertheless, she grabbed her new companion, petting it protectively in her arms. Her cat. Her gold. Her neko.

"And what is this?" Asami was curious.

Mitsuhiko's conceited grin returned, arrogant as before. He thought he had won. Little did he know though that his life had been already forfeited. "it is a small part of our family treasure and I originally planned to offer you as compensation. I knew you would like it. So would you please spare me?"

Asami stopped petting her cat. She had to concede that Mitsuhiko was braver than she had given him credit for. "Oh, that? Yes, that can be arranged. I can promise you that I won't kill you."

"Really?"

Her Susanoo vanished, leaving behind an amorphous cloud of shining purple particles. Her Chakra roamed freely through the room while Asami was smiling sweetly. "Yes." Her Chakra hardened suddenly, materialising with gruesome effectiveness.

They purple particles formed an array of expanding spikes, cutting through everything in their way. Stone, wood, human flesh, and bone. The purple spikes killed every guard in her vicinity instantly, indiscriminately. Their bodies were hanging in the air like a collection of lifeless mannequins. Whose blood painted the floor red drip by drip. Only Mitsuhiko survived, seemingly spared by Asami's spikes. They missed him, but Mitsukiho was now alone. Alone with a happily beaming girl, tilting her head.

"Did you really think, Mitsuhiko, you would get away just like that? No, Mitsuhiko, I want more, . I want revenge. I want retribution. I want justice. And I will get it."Asami lit a fire in her hand, a flickering purple flame danced across her palm. Mitsuhiko was trembling, visibly terrified by her spectacle.

"What are you doing?"

"Isn't that obvious? You paid me well, so I will give you a fair chance to survive this. I will give you the same chance you gave Yuki." Her flame did as commanded. The fire was spreading fast, prepared to devour the entire castle in a blazing storm.

"And to make it even fairer." Her Susanoo grabbed a defenceless Mitsuhiko and snapped his legs. His bones were shattered, his tendons ripped apart and his body was discarded like an useless rag doll.

A cry of pain echoed through the room, but Asami didn't even feel a trace of remorse. Instead, she was hiding behind a sweet smile.

"Anyway, I think I will leave now with your lovely gold. And I wish you luck, Mitsuhiko, because you will need it. I have heard that being burned is ... a very painful death, right?" Asami asked her cat which of course agreed with her new happy owner. What a good cat.

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	64. Arc VIII Chapter XI

**VIII**

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 **Arc VIII Chapter X** **I**

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The day was about to end as the sun was setting on the horizon. The last rays of the warming daylight disappeared from this frozen world only to be replaced by darkness and the coming night. The temperatures were falling rapidly and the city became increasingly hostile to human life in general. Her very breath was already congealing in the cold air. It was a clear sign that they had to find a shelter soon, a preferentially warm place for the night, which they did, eventually.

It took quite some time much to Yuki's annoyance because her companion was an ... Well, Tobi was a natural idiot, which wasn't a particular secret. Seriously, it wasn't. Thank to his excellent sense of orientation, they got lost not only once, not twice, but thrice! They were forced to ask for directions and even then Tobi still managed to bugger it up. Stupid Tobi!

Nevertheless, he wasn't entirely to blame for this organisational disaster. To a certain degree, she was also responsible. Not that Yuki would ever admit that.

No, this was the wrong street. No, this wasn't the right place. No, the prices were open daylight robbery. No, the inn was shabbier than shabby. No, the quality of the food was dubious. No, they had no running water. No, the rooms weren't befitting her standing as well as her status. No, she deserved better, Asami deserved better. She would definitely find the best inn in the entire city for her and make nee-san proud. Yuki clenched her fists, determined to achieve her goal.

And she succeeded. In the end, they found a suitable place for the night and even some food. Or at least a gluttonous Tobi had found something to eat.

"*Yum*, *yum*, *yum*, *yum*."

"*Nom*, *nom*, *nom*, *nom*."

"*Yum*, *yum*, *yum*, *yum*."

"*Nom*, *nom*, *nom*, *nom*."

"*Yum*, *nom*, *yum*, *nom*."

Tobi enjoyed his sweet dangos and his mountain of empty plates was growing. Apparently, he liked them a lot and somehow he was even able to eat them without removing his mask.

Yuki didn't share his enthusiasm. Instead, she gave him her best blank disapproving stare.

Tobi noticed her eventually with his mouth full of dango sticks. "Mmmm, Is sommmething wronmmmg, Yuki?"

Yuki crossed her arms. "No, nothing. Everything is fine."

Tobi was doubtful, ignoring his dagos for the time being. "Are you sure? You don't look happy."

Yuki sighed and diverted . "Never mind. Forget it, it is nothing important. I am just a slightly ... worried."

Tobi raised his eyebrow. "Worried?"

Yuki nodded, reflecting deeply

Tobi was rubbing his chin. "Hmmm, in that case, I have a solution to your problem."

Yuki wasn't convinced, much the contrary in fact. "Really? Because I doubt so."

She knew Tobi and she knew that he wasn't particularly helpful at anything. So what stupid idea did he have now?

"Don't be so pessimistic, Yuki! Just believe in me. A little bit at least! And yes, I have an idea how to lift your mood. It always works for me!" Tobi smiled proudly and presented her his brilliant solution. "Tada, a dango."

"I am sure you will like them!" Tobi grinned beneath his mask while a little girl

showed her dissatisfaction openly. She finally understood Asami and her tendency to hit Tobi. And to be honest, she felt this mysterious urge to hit him as well as. For some reason, Tobi seemed like an ideal ... punching bag with his stupid grin.

Yuki wasn't amused. "Tobi, I doubt that a simple dango will help ..."

*poke*

*poke*

*poke*

Tobi was poking her cheeks impishly with a dango stick. " Are ~ you~ sure~? It is a really tasty dango!"

...

...

...

Yuki sighed heavily and took the stick. Primarily to stop his incessant nagging, but also because she was hungry. Just a tiny bit though. And she liked sweets.

Yuki consumed her sweet joy and Tobi smiled, pleased. "What this so difficult? And now you can tell me what's the issue?"

"You can trust Tobi! Tobi is reliable. Most of the times at least."

Yuki looked up, giving him again a blank stare. Contrary to before, she didn't ignore him. Instead, she accepted his offer and trusted in him once.

"You know, Tobi, I am worried about nee-san. I am worried that something could happen to her and nee-san wont come back." Yuki was concerned.

Tobi blinked He was confused, not to say bewildered. She was worried about Asami? The heartless grim reaper of Konoha, the black-winged loli of death? Was she serious?

"So you want to tell me you are worried that Asami wont return, ... right?"

Yuki nodded. "I know Mistuhiko. And I know that he can't be trusted." Her uncle was dangerous. She knew what he was capable of. She didn't want to lose her too.

"Yuki, you can calm down. She will come back, I am sure." Tobi assured her with a smile.

Yuki was still dubious. "And why?"

Tobi answered with a question," Yuki, do you think Asami is strong?"

Yuki tilted her head, startled. She was thinking. And thinking. And thinking. And even more thinking, which reminded Tobi of someone who exhibited a similar habit when being lost in thought.

Yuki shook her head, looking concerned. "No, I don't thin so. Nee-san doesn't strike me as being strong. In fact, that is the reason I am worried, because nee-san seems weak. I hope she is well."

Tobi nearly choked on one of his tangos. "*cough*, *cough*, *cough*. Ehm? Asami ... weak ... Where did you get that idea from?" The little demon in black ... weak? Didn't she get the last memo about very dangerous and moody lolis?

Yuki tilted her head again, wondering why Tobi was so silent. Was something wrong with him? " Well, I am not completely sure, but nee-san doesn't seem strong. Or at least I can't imagine it."

Asami was hugging, huggling, cuddling her on a daily basis. Especially, when she was sleeping and treating her as her personal teddy bear, which wasn't as funny as it sounded. Asami was always tucking her in at night. Asami was smiling brightly and she visibly enjoyed pinching her cheeks whenever she could. Not that she could do much against her attacks.

Asami felt to her much like the older sister she never had. Nee-san was sweet, fluffy and almost as short as her. Yuki couldn't think of her as anything but that. Someone like her couldn't be dangerous, not to mention strong, right?

Yuki looked at Tobi expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Tobi was speechless in more than one way, and for good reasons. He stared blankly at a girl who didn't comprehend, who couldn't comprehend.

"I see." Tobi smiled and tried to pet her with little success. Yuki evaded his hand and gave him her usual distrusting stare. Apparently, only Asami was allowed to pet her, and nobody else. Yuki was kind of touchy when it came to being touched. She didn't like it unless it was her precious nee-san.

"Anywayy ... you should worry less and focus on the ... present ... Yuki? Yuki, is something?" Yuki didn't react. She was frozen as her eyes were staring directly through a window into the dark cold night. Her eyes were fixed on the distant horizon and she ignored him completely.

Tobi followed her sight and his eyes grew wide. He understood what captured her attention, what grabbed everyone's attention. They weren't the only ones, other people noticed it and the empty streets were gradually filled by curious onlookers. The entire horizon was glowing in a sinister shade. Tobi had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling. Because it seemed as if the air was ... burning.

Yuki left the inn to get a better view and Tobi followed immediately after her. After all, he shouldn't leave her wandering around alone, unsupervised. If his mistress ever found out that he had lost track of her little treasure, ... Well, it wouldn't be good for his health to put it mildly.

What he saw confirmed his suspicions. He was right. Burning ash and smoke were illuminating the night and nothing was stopping them. He could smell the burning coaled wood in the air. It was clear to him who was responsible for this.

A giant column of smoke was rising to the sky fuelled by the wrathful flames below. The castle was consumed by a blazing purple fire and the night seemed to turn to day. Everything was devoured and nothing could ever hope to withstand the flames. Yuki was staring at the raging conflagration and so was Tobi.

Tobi observed the flames carefully and with interest. He heard about them, but it was the first time he saw them in person. And what was even more interesting, her fire felt somehow familiar. He didn't understand why, but the aura, the entire nature of her fire gave him a familiar feeling. As if his eyes had seen such power before, back then when he was still a different person known under a different name.

Tobi turned his head to Yuki with a slight grin beneath his mask. His voice was sober and more serious than usual. " It seems your worries were ... unfounded. She doesn't need our help." As expected.

Yuki looked at him with a mixture of confusion and genuine fear. "And what is that supposed to mean ..."

"That means that I am well and healthy."

Yuki recognised her sweet melodic voice immediately and her lips formed a secret smile , accompanied by a slight reddish blush. It could be only nee-san and she nearly overcome by her desire to hug her. Of course she would never do such a thing. Hugs weren't her specialty.

Yuki turned around and what greeted her and Tobi was the sight of a happy Asami strolling through the streets, and an oversized golden maneki neko right in her arms. Both of them were armed with a bright smile.

Asami tilted her head, beaming warmly. "It took some time to find you. I was already wondering where you had gone to."

"Anyway, I hope you had some fun together ..."

Asami blinked, confused by what happened in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, two tiny weak arms were curled around her hip, hugging her tightly with all the force and love they had. It was Yuki and for some inexplicable reasons Asami became a victim of her deadly huggle.

Asami didn't know why she was hugged, but she couldn't care less. After all these years, it felt good. It really felt good. All of Asami's confusion turned into the warmest smile since a long time. Her heart was glad to see Yuki again.

"Tobi?"

"Yes, senpai?"

"Can you take care of my cat for a few seconds?" Asami showed him her new little friend. Looting the castle was profitable. Sadly,she couldn't take everything as her fire claimed its share faster than her. She only got a few crates with her storage scrolls and a cat. But still gold was gold, money was money.

"Understood, senpai!" Tobi saluted. He took the statue and regretted his decision quickly.

Tobi was pulled down by the weight, nearly crashing onto the ground. "Ahhhhh, it's heavy."

"Yes, it is." Asami smiled with a slight smirk. "Be careful, I don't want to be damaged."

"I will try my best, aargh." Tobi groaned while trying to lift the cat again. It was still heavy as hell.

Asami chuckled before dedicating her attention to Yuki, patting her head and nothing else. Neither her nor Yuki were saying anything. She was just patting her and Yuki was just ...

A dull noise interrupted both of them. Something fell to the ground, something heavy. Asami gave Tobi an annoyed stare He did it, didn't he?

Tobi scratched his head innocently. "Sowwy, senpai."

He dropped the cat, but this time the head fell off, revealing a scroll hidden inside its hollow torso ... Hidden? Scroll?

Asami stared at the scroll and eventually she examined the parchment. The scroll was old, not say ancient. A scroll from the distant past whose purpose was long since forgotten. The only hint was a seal hanging around it. On the seal was stamped a paw, but not just any paw. It was a cat paw. What a strange find.

* * *

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